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5 Actors Who Drunk Like Maniacs
The golden age of Hollywood was famous for many things, not least actors who would drink you under the table...
1. William Holden
Hollywood golden boy-turned-grade A booze hound, Holden killed a pedestrian while driving under the influence in Europe. His drinking escalated while shooting The Wild Bunch with Sam Peckinpah (see below). Died in 1981 aged 63 when he hit his head on a coffee table following a heavy session.
2. Sam Peckinpah
When he wasn’t shoveling down cocaine, Western legend Peckinpah liked nothing better than to retire to bed with a bottle of 120-proof Yugoslavian slivovitz and his revolver. So drunk during the shooting of Convoy that friend James Coburn had to take the helm, he died of massive heart failure in 1984 aged 59.
3. Richard Burton
The heir to Olivier’s throne, Burton kept a four-storey liquor trolley in his bedroom. Claiming that: “when I played drunks I had to remain sober because I didn’t know how to play them when I was drunk”, the extent of his problem was underlined by a cameo appearance in Lee Majors’ The Fall Guy. Died in 1984 aged 59.
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4. Lee Marvin
A decorated Marine, Marvin’s reputation for hardness was eclipsed only by his legendary drinking. Besides getting hammered on the set of Point Blank to give John Boorman more time to set up a shot, he was regularly to be found in the company of good time boys Reed and Robert Shaw. Died in 1987 aged 63.
5. Trevor Howard
That nice young man who romanced Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter was, in fact, a world champion drinker with a gut like a leather bucket. In his later years, drinking so impaired Howard’s script selection that he appeared in The Last Remake Of Beau Geste but turned down Don Siegel and Robert Aldrich. Died in 1987 aged 71.
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COMMENTS
Good to see these hard drinkers all lived to a decent-ish age. This article has convinced me to drink harder from now on.
Oliver Reed, Peter O'Toole & Richard Harris could out fight out drink and out fuck the lot of them.
Andy Carrol
Worlds greatest drunk? Andre the Giant http://www.drunkard.com/issues/10_06/10_06_andre_giant.html
Definitely Ollie Reed, by all accounts a top bloke to drink with, even on the night he actually drank himself to death, apparently.
I loved him, and some of the stories are genuinely funny, but like every hopeless alcoholic, those others named above included, Oliver Reed was basically just a self-centred dickhead who was allowed to indulge himself due to the privilege of his financial and social status. Alcoholism is an incurable disease which wrecks the lives of its victims. I really don't understand this 'lad' culture that glorifies something so sad and destructive.
I agree Martin. You need a lot of cash to get away with it (being a functioning alcoholic) and it is not a great life past 35, when you go from party animal to hopelessly ill. This was brought home to me reading the Keith Floyd Bio and seeing him on TV in the eighties. He looked fantastic - handsome,flamboyant, charismatic, driving his Bentley, shagging gorgeous women, big gold rolex etc. Then it all turned to shit and mainly down to booze. He looked like Gollum in the end. They all do.
always amazed me when these day sthe moralising papers make anyone who so much touches a drop to be the devil incarnate (see Andy Carroll, Charles Kennedy, England rugby team) think of the great men who were heavy drinkers; Churchill, Georgie Best, Tony Adams, Richard Harris, Hemingway and the list goes on.
anon - they were great men and drinkers... Just being a drinker doesnt make you a great man...
Its the advertising industry that attempts to equate the amount one drinks with the level of one's masculinity. Actually the more one drinks, the more of a loser he is.
Did you notice that you put Lee Marvin's photo over William Holden's part, tut tut tut
Alcohol is fun in your twenties, a nuisance in your thirties, life threatening by your 40's
During the making of Shout At The Devil, Roger Moore outdrank Lee Marvin. During the making of The Wild Geese, Moore outdrank Burton and Harris...yet Moore is never listed in these. I'd also add David Hemmings who was alleged to have outdrank Oliver Reed too. John Hurt was a spectacular drunk, including one evening at a charity gala where he attempted to chat up Princess Di, whilst she stood next to Charles. He didn't have a clue who either of them were, he was that smashed! Then there's Peter Cook, Graham Chapman.... Peter O'Toole is the ultimate legend though.
drank is the past tense of the verb to drink - so, 5 actors who drank like maniacs........
Errol Flynn, Keith Richards, his dad, my Dad
The first photograph is of Lee Marvin, not William Holden.
lets not forget some rock stars, slash who drank so much jd his tounge turned black. keith richards who drank as much as he did drugs, and he still drinks and is still alive , his partner in crime ronnie wood who got so fed up walking to the pub he had one built in his garden,and the legend that is rick wakeman who once drank a plane dry of all booze on his way to japan, but he did have the help of two roadies and his drumer, and then there was keith moon, enough said.
old time actors who could sink a few bogart , flynn, sinatra a far biger drinker than his mate dean martin, wc fields who even used to spike his oranges with vodka when on a film set,
peter o'toole took out someone from the papers for lunch, after four bottles of red wine three bottles of white and a botttle of port, peter said to his guest come on , theres a great play on at the old vic, they sat there watching , when o'toole said to his freind shit , i remeber why this is good , i should be up there on stage in it.
funny as hell
aspelto reed you drank 109 pints in 24 hours reed to aspel no it was 48 hours aspel o, thats ok then.
Chin chin, Peter O'Toole.
The first picture is not William Holden, it's Lee Marvin
Quite right, grumpygramma. I believe there was a copyright issue re: the Holden image that was originally used.
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