Oliver Reed

 "My only regret is that I didn't drink every pub dry and sleep with every woman on the planet."

Oliver Reed narrowly missed out on playing superspy James Bond because of his love of alcohol and fighting. A biography of the star uncovered a letter from Bond mastermind Albert R. Broccoli outlining how close he came to replacing Sean Connery in the role. Broccoli wrote, "With Reed we would have had a far greater problem to destroy his image and re-mold him as James Bond. We just didn't have the time or money to do that." According to Cliff Goodwin, author of the book "Evil Spirits," "Oliver was probably within a sliver of being cast as Bond." He adds, "But by 1968, his affairs were public and he was already drinking and fighting - as far away from the refined Bond image as you could get."

By the mid-1970s, Reed was considered by many to be Britain's biggest movie star. He declined roles in "The Sting" (1973) and "Jaws" (1975) because he didn't want to relocate to Los Angeles. Both of these roles were taken by fellow British hellraiser Robert Shaw. However, a Hollywood executive claimed, "Reed didn't turn us down. We turned him down. We like our stars to have respect - Oliver Reed didn't respect anyone and he showed it."

Reed never had any acting training or stage experience. "Theatre doesn't interest me. It doesn't interest me because in England theatre means warm gin during intermission, not being able to smoke in the theatre, eat chocolates and try to find out who else is present in order to then greet them in the foyer. Going to this or that theatre premiere is very much an 'in' thing to do. But this is only one of the reasons; the second reason is a bit more professional. Logically speaking, I think that for an actor or an actress working in the theatre is boring, but I am not referring to theatre actors who have always worked there, and this my own boring opinion, but because it means reciting the same lines every night six nights a week, not counting matinées . . . boring, don't you think?"

"I'm not for acting schools because I suspect that the majority of the teachers are there because they can't find work as actors or because they think they can teach people to act but haven't had much experience themselves in the field. What I mean is that my skepticism derives from the fact that I believe that for an actor it's much more important to learn with the audience . . . the audience is the real teacher and it's the audience that has taught me what I know."