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I should probably be offended by this but I'm way too busy laughing - look at 22 year old Oliver Reed mincing away like nobody's business! This is from the 1960 film The League of Gentlemen - here's the clip:
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I just read the story about this scene in the biography of him that I'm reading right now called What Fresh Lunacy Is This? (we wrote a little bit about it last week too). Oliver had acted a few small bits here and there but this was kind of his big break - the dude who was supposed to play this part couldn't swish properly, and Oliver - who was an extra on the set - piped up that he could do what they were asking for, and voila. That magic.
I suppose it's the disconnect (although not really) with Ollie's burly manly image that's making me laugh and not cringe at that scene - although I say "not really" because the charm of Oliver Reed was the balancing act he maintained between his masculine + feminine sides, between the drunken lout lashing-out and the emotional, sexually ambiguous stuff. He was the Straight Hugh Jackman of his day!
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3 comments:
"Straight Hugh Jackman"... HILARIOUS!!
For my part I still can't believe Ollie Reed was 'completely' straight. Anything on that in that autobiography?
Not yet, mangrove, but I keep waiting for it too. I've only just gotten to his early 20s, so we'll see. There was a bit about how in school he wasn't getting laid at all so he channeled all that energy into sports and male camaraderie that seemed AWFULLY pointed; I'm actually not sure the writer's gonna go there but we'll see
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