SirOllyBolly

HELLRAISERS - The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole and Oliver Reed.

A new book out now - available at Amazon here

From the dust jacket notes:
Hellraisers is the story of four of the greatest boozers that ever walked - or staggered - into a pub; Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole and Oliver Reed. It's a story of drunken binges of near biblical proportions, parties and orgies, broken marriages, riots and wanton sexual conquests. Indeed acts so outrageous that if you or I had perpetrated them we could have ended up in jail. They got away with the kind of behaviour that today's vapid bunch of film stars could scarcely dream of, because of their mercurial acting talent and because the press and public loved them. They were truly the last of a breed, the last of the movie hellraisers.

Hellraisers traces the intertwining lives and careers or Burton, Harris, O'Toole and Reed, plus an assortment of other movies boozers that crossed their path, or should that be crawled across their path. It's a celebratory catalogue of their miscreant deeds, a greatest hits package, as it were, of their most breathtakingly outrageous behaviour, told with humour and affection, lashings of political incorrectness and not an ounce of moralising.

Enjoy it. They bloody well did.

SirOllyBolly

"What fresh lunacy is this?"

davidb

a certain newspaper which will remain nameless was serialising this a couple of weeks ago , theyre good for things like that the daily mail ..........oops now im for it

CaptainWaggett

I once spent an evening in Richard Harris' local, observing him chatting up two young tourists (I was with friends - we weren't actually stalking him) and he was disappointingly restrained. I had hoped for mayhem, destruction and a good anecdote. His unimaginative chat-up line was that he was going to buy them drinks as it was his birthday - unimaginative because this was actually true!

batman

The legendary Olly was a real gent went I met him ..... I will have to give this a look. Cheers matey!

Don't miss out on a chance to win a rare film in Bat-Quiz 13 closing date - 31/8/8.

Chevyman

I'll look forward to reading that.

Tried Amazon but they have it listed at £9.99 plus £2.74 P&P.

Play.com have it for £9.99 inc P&P

Paperback is not due till next year

Often used to see Ollie at boxing shows( in the audience) in London.

Thanks for the tip

If I wasn't meant to drive that fast, the pedal would stop half way!!

SirOllyBolly

Actually, any credit should go to forum member stevie boy who first mentioned it in a previous thread. Thanks, stevie boy.

It’s strange, but I find that hellraisers are quite a subjective subject. While I’m a great fan of Oliver Reed, I’ve had little interest in the other subjects of the book.

In recent times (and as a result of researching one of Oliver’s childhood heroes), Errol Flynn has become a distracting fascination, but I have little interest in the likes of Keith Moon (a friend of Reed) or George Best (a contemporary) – though fine hellraisers both.

I guess I’m drawn to the charm of both Reed and Flynn – both true gentlemen on and off screen when they wanted to be – but true hellraisers when unleashed!

SirOllyBolly

"What fresh lunacy is this?"