Reed's first starring role was as the werewolf in Terence
Fishers The
Curse of the Werewolf (1961). If there was a tradition of restraint
and decency in British post-war cinema, Reed belongs to that excess,
which would also contain Hammer horror and Ken
Russell, for whom Reed starred in Women
in Love (1969), The
Devils (1971) and Tommy (1975). Reed was one of Richard
Lester's musketeers in The
Three Musketeers (1974) and The Four Musketeers (1975). He is, the
nephew of Carol Reed,
for whom he played a notable Bill Sikes in Oliver! (1968). He appeared in The Brood (1978) for David Cronenberg and in Castaway (1986)
for Nicolas Roeg. Much loved by
the popular tabloid press as a source of scandal, he was given to displays
of boozy masculinity on television chat shows until his death in 1999.
