Whilst toying with this week's theme for Fun Fact Friday for more time than I'm proud to admit, it occurred to me, much the same way a cold, wet fish slapping one's cheeks would occur to a trawler, that my recent missives have featured the late Oliver Reed in one form or another.
I'm still yet to finish his biography, but if ever you needed evidence that what we read can infect our minds (in a good way), then this is it.
What a guy.
What a character, both on screen and off it.
Yet, as much as I enjoy his legacy, I am also aware that there are many among our finest here at the Legion who don't know him from Adam.
So what better way to introduce you to him than to serve up five facts about the man?
Starting with…
Did you know…
He had zero stage experience?
Reed remains one of the only major British film stars who never did any theatre work at all. A National Portrait Gallery exhibition once highlighted him as their only "pure film actor."
(Yet another reason why "expert" on paper is overrated.)
Did you know…
He nearly became James Bond?
Producer Albert R. Broccoli seriously considered Reed as a replacement for Sean Connery. Broccoli later wrote that they came close but decided against it because Reed's hard-drinking, hell-raising image would have been too hard and expensive to reshape into the suave 007.
(Safe to say Broccoli didn't want the steam.)
Did you know…
He broke the ice for the famous nude wrestling scene?
For Women in Love (1969), co-star Alan Bates was deeply hesitant about filming the unscripted nude wrestling match. To break the tension and convince Bates to do it, Reed challenged him to a drunken wrestling match right in the kitchen during a night out. Bates agreed, the scene was shot, and it became the first full-frontal male nudity in a mainstream English-language film.
(And it's probably the reason we haven't seen much more since.)
Did you know…
He almost died on the set of The Three Musketeers?
During the windmill duel scene, Reed was accidentally stabbed in the throat with a real sword and nearly bled to death.
(A close call, but it wasn't a sword that would claim his life.)
Did you know…
His death was pure Oliver Reed?
While filming Gladiator in Malta in 1999, he spent an afternoon drinking with Royal Navy sailors (reportedly three bottles of Captain Morgan rum, multiple beers, whiskies, and cognacs), beat several of them at arm-wrestling, then collapsed from a heart attack. The production later spent about $3 million digitally recreating his face so his remaining scenes could be completed.
(That's money well spent, if you ask me. It had me fooled until I watched the extended cut. Then there's the $460 million the movie grossed worldwide.)
And those are five facts about the legendary Oliver Reed. There were a great many to choose from, but these ones stood out most to me.
If you haven't watched any of his work, treat yourself to one of his movies this weekend.
You won't regret it.
And if you're not much of a movie buff, well, I've got ten books to kill the time here:
https://www.djjwatsonstore.com
Have a great weekend, Legionnaire. Stay classy.
DJJW