Robert Oliver Reed

When Oliver Reed died in May 1999, the world lost one of it's most compelling on-screen presences - and most colourful off-screen personalities. Since then his catalogue of work spanning over forty years seems to have been largely forgotten or ignored. Remarkable for an actor who at the height of his career was Britain's most highly paid and internationally famous film star; unfortunate for a man who later became infamous for his TV appearances and off-screen antics rather than his earlier film successes.

Whether he was brawling with the Cardinal's guards as Athos in The Three Musketeers or staggering his way through singing The Wild One on a TV chat show, there can be little doubt that Oliver Reed never did anything half-heartedly.

"Life should be lived and that's all there is to it", he once remarked - and he certainly lived his life with a gusto that has rarely been equalled.

That such a colourful and eventful life should go un-commemorated would be a great loss; a waste of the story of not only a talented and constantly underrated actor, but of a man who knew from an early age what we may only come to realise in later life; that life is short - and should be enjoyed to the full and in the best way we know how.