Oliver Reed was well known for his drunken behaviour which sadly overshadowed his great acting ability. A shamefully underrated British actor his most popular role was as Bill Sykes in Oliver (1968) but my favourite was Sergeant in The Triple Echo (1972) with Glenda Jackson and Brian Deacon. The film to purchase is rare and hard to find but is available to watch on the internet. Jackson plays farmer's wife Alice left alone when her husband is a Japanese POW, Deacon is army deserter Barton who hides at the farm and becomes her lover. Reed's character is in charge of the search for AWOL soldiers, when Alice decides to dress Barton as a female called 'Cathy' to disguise him neither could have guessed that the Sergeant would fancy 'her'.
Reed's loud sweaty overbearing Sergeant makes you fear for the other lead characters and Barton goes too far when he agrees to accompany him to a local dance as Cathy. Up to this point in the film he gets away with his disguise as he has delicate features and is slim, even puny. The Sergeant however is stockily built, a heavy drinker and horny as hell!
Years ago when showing a potential tenant a flat he told me he was reading the book Evil Spirits, The life of Oliver Reed by Cliff Goodwin (Virgin Books Ltd 2000) which had mentioned Reed's Stockwell council flat at Tring House. He was born 13 February 1938 in Wimbledon but during his first marriage to Kate Byrne they had lived at the Lambeth address whilst he was employed as a vacuum cleaner salesman. (imagine him knocking at your door with that bruttish but handsome face, you'd buy anything he was selling).
Some day Tring House may get a blue plaque. 'Oliver Reed, the actor, lived here'.
