Trivia/Anecdotes

"The White Elephant Celebrity Cook Book" is a collection of recipes donated by celebrities without fees, all the proceeds of which went to help not only under-privileged children, but battered families, through the auspices of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The following contribution was from Oliver Reed...

Prawns Mergertated in Sherry

Serves 4   24 raw Dublin Bay prawns 4 oz butter salt and pepper 8 fluid oz medium-dry sherry 8 oz cream 3 egg yolks chili powder parsley 2 cups rice 2 cups cold water 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon oil First drink several large glasses of sherry! Fry the prawns in butter, seasoning with salt and pepper Add the sheery, and boil to reduce.

Remove from heat, and add the cream and yolks, stirring all the time. Return to a very low heat until thickened. Finish off the sherry yourself! A little chili powder and parsley may be dusted over the top for a spicy flavour and colour, if desired.   Meanwhile wash the rice. Add water and salt. Bring to the boil and cover with lid. Turn the heat very low for about 20 minutes. A teaspoon of oil may be added.   Then serve, preferably with at least another bottle of sherry for each person, so that if it's a disaster you'll be too drunk to notice.

Curried Chicken Knockers

Serves 4   2 bay leaves 1 clove garlic 2 cloves 2 oz butter 6 plump chicken breasts 2 onions, chopped 2 teaspoons curry powder 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 green pepper, sliced 1/2 level teaspoon powdered turmeric 1/4 level teaspoon ginger 1/2 lb tomatoes 1/2 pint chicken stock tomato purée 1 tablespoon desiccated coconut 4 fluid oz yoghurt salt and pepper Fry the bay leaves, garlic, and cloves in butter for 1 1/2 minutes. Add the chicken breasts, brown slightly, remove, and keep warm.

Add the chopped onions, and fry until transparent. Add curry powder and chili powder. Return the chicken, add sliced green pepper, tumeric, ginger, and tomatoes. Add stock, tomato purée, and stir. Bring to the boil adding coconut and yoghurt. Lower heat, add salt and pepper to taste and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Add more stock if necessary.   Serve with rice, a side dish of cucumber, chopped onions, yoghurt, with green chilis... raw for the brave.

Below a letter published in TIME magazine June 14th. 1999
From Mr.Anthony Phillips (London),who I am sure admired Oliver as much as we did!

Titled:- OLIVER REED'S ODD RECORD
It reads.....'I cannot claim to have been an intimate friend of the actor Oliver Reed (May 17th.), but I lived in the same area and had the occasional drink with him. I think he holds the record for beer drinking: 109 pints of lager in 24 hours. I make that four and a half pints an hour. I know many men who can drink five or six pints in an hour, but not many could sustain that consumption for 24 hours!

Crowing about Crowe: Richard Harris

On Gladiator and Russell: "The thought of this legend on set with the equally bibulous Oliver Reed is formidable, but the much vaunted clash of the hellraisers didn't happen. "I never worked with Reed at all," says Harris. "I only worked for seven days, so I didn't meet Oliver. But I did meet Russell Crowe and I adored him-because it hasn't gone to his head yet. And I don't think that it will" I said "Keep your feet on the ground and you'll go to the sky!"

When Ken Russell was asked in an interview "What actors were hard to work with? Was Oliver Reed one of them, who has also got a strong ego, and temperament?", his reply came as follows:

"I don't remember the actors that I didn't get along with, but there are still some actors that I will never forget: Glenda Jackson and Oliver Reed. Work with them went on with almost telepathic manner. Once we read the script and discussed the characters, there was not much work to be done. But I've worked with Oliver Reed on a number of BBC documentaries, and some feature films. We quickly devised a method of working together. Bearing in mind the speed of the filming and that actors know the story and their actual limitations. We had very short communication, depending on the amount of intensity of the scene. We called it very simple, Moody 1, Moody 2 and Moody 3. With Glenda Jackson I had a completely telepathic relationship. I was shooting a scene in the film called Saloma's Last Dance, and she played the queen and we were just about to shoot the scene after lunch. We were expected that she was studying her role, but when I've knocked on her door, and went in, she was reading a woman's magazine, chewing gum, smoking a cigarette, and listening to jazz on the radio. And I said: "Are you ready for the scene Glenda?" And she asked "What we doing today Ken? ... Ah, no problem." So she took out her gum, put out her cigarette closed the magazine and gave the greatest performance of her life. So, she's special. And that's show business!"

The following is an obituary of Gerald Kingsland, the character played by Oliver Reed in the film Castaway:

BROMYARD adventurer Gerald Kingsland who found fame when he advertised for women to share his life with him on deserted islands across the world has reached his final resting place - a field in Herefordshire.

The would-be Robinson Crusoe who at one time had lived with friends in the area died in London earlier this year at the age of 69.

Recently his home had been in Western Samoa with his fifth wife, a native girl called Kolopa.

Last November he was diagnosed with bowel cancer and at Christmas returned to London to stay with the wife he had left 25 years ago.

He died in March and his ashes have now been scattered in a field on a farm near Bromyard.

Gerald Kingsland spent the last 22 years of his life hopping from one deserted island to another in the South Pacific.

He behaved like a modern Robinson Crusoe, and advertised in newspapers and magazines for suitable Girl Fridays to accompany him.

He found them, but in turn they found life in paradise to be less than perfect.

One of them, castaway Lucy Irvine, wrote a best-selling book of their adventures in an exotic location which was later turned into a film starring Oliver Reed and Amanda Donohoe.

Gerald Kingsland's wife Kolopa, aged 27, and son Richard, his seventh child, remain at their home in Samoa.

"The Roar of the Tiger: Dialogues with Sergio Sollima" is an interview by Mario Nighteagle Marsili with Sergio Sollima, director of the film "Revolver" which starred Oliver Reed. The following is an excerpt of this interview:

MM: We can at this point go on to another subject, and look at your Noir series of films. Let us start with REVOLVER, with Oliver Reed. How was Revolver conceived?

SS: A story was given to me one day. It was a badly written story , but I liked the core of it. It was a kind of modern Faccia a Faccia... two colliding characters, a cop that sees his duty morals as a religion, and a small-timer, a loser. The clash between them thrilled me. In the end, the lawman accepts crime as a solution, he accepts it! Like in many of my movies, the possibility of a personality change has always inspired my creativity. I thought of Oliver Reed, after his performance in Ken Russel´s I Demoni . An anecdote: Reed´s agent forgot to send the screenplay to Oliver, because he was too busy or.. I don´t know. Anyway, when we finally met in Rome, at the Hotel Excelsior Oliver showed his enthusiasm for the coming work with me. In the elevator he told me about a particular scene he was very fond of and started acting it. Due to the narrowness of the location we were in, an elevator, and the renown aggressive tendency of Oliver, I did not dare to reveal him that that particular scene had already been removed from the final draft of the screenplay! At the very beginning, when the script was given to Reed´s agent, the role of the small-time hood was given to Mario Girotti, aka Terence Hill. The mishap with the stupid agent ended in a consistent loss of time, and when we were finally ready and Reed had got his copy and he also was ready to start, Terence Hill was no longer available, being under contract for another movie. So we took Fabio Testi.

MM: How do you remember Oliver Reed?

SS: A talented actor, a man perfectly conscious of his craziness, an alcoholic, who died in a pub. You cannot imagine the amount of alcohol he gulped down daily. Lee van Cleef was a dwarf compared to Oliver. It is unspeakable...I lost the count of beer bottles, whisky shots etc...it is unbelievable. However, on the set he was a perfect professional.

MM: What does it mean when you say that an actor is very professional? Please define it.

SS: A professional actor is such when he does not carry his own, private personal deficiencies into the character he is playing and into the set. Oliver was professional until, say, 3 o´clock in the afternoon. After that the effects of alcohol became apparent. Another anectode. In Paris we organized a dinner party also to make Fabio and Oliver become acquainted. We were in a restaurant at the Champs Elisees, dressed very elegantly. Oliver shows up in a rugby sweater, with a large number in front and back, jeans and cowboy boots. Now, formal dress and tie were mandatory in that particular establishment, and Oliver looked like a nightmare to the French. The reception guy remarked that a tie was necessary to enter, so Oliver asks for one, there were several available at the reception, and puts it on over the rubgy sweater! He looked so funny, we had a great time that evening.

Oliver! After They Were Famous was an hour long documentary broadcast on British television which reunited the original cast of the musical Oliver! after nearly 35 years. The following are the memories of the cast of Oliver Reed:

Narrator: One man missing from the group is of course the late Oliver Reed. He played Nancy's nasty boyfriend Bill Sykes who snatches Oliver from his uncle's house to stop him talking about their lives crime. Playing the villain was something Oliver Reed... took very seriously.

Shani Wallis:I wouldn't say that Oliver Reed was warm towards me. Urm... oh he loved the ladies... oh Oliver Reed absolutely loved the ladies, but I think... it was... he was totally involved in his role. The dramatic scene with Oliver Reed and myself... where he gets extremely angry with me... and wants me to do what he wants... and where he slaps me I mean... he scared me. I fell and almost... almost cracked my head open. And I remember getting up from that position... and I was trembling... and my... my whole body felt that I wanted to cover myself up from all those young boys behind me.

Ray Ward (Fagin's Gang): The thing that stuck in my mind with him - they were doing one scene with Mark Lester - and I think there's a bit where he's taking him like this like (gestures a small swipe with his arm). Mark Lester was sort of... not giving it all... and he went whack! (gestures a large swipe with his arm) and hit him round the face!... and I went... God!, that frightened the life out of me! And after that I used to look at Oliver Reed... diff...different light altogether. I was... "I ain't gonna say nothing to him" (laughs)