1. Maxwell Reed was a Northern Irish actor who became a matinee idol in British films during the 1940s and 1950s.
17 Facts About Maxwell Reed
1. 2.
Maxwell Reed left school aged fifteen to work on ships, including as a blockade runner.
3.
Maxwell Reed wanted to act and ended up studying at RADA for a year.
4.
Maxwell Reed did a screen test for Riverside Studios at Rank and joined The Company of Youth at the age of 27.
5.
Producer Sydney Box thought Maxwell Reed had star potential and promoted him to leading man status for Daybreak, a film noir which Box produced and co-wrote with his wife Muriel; Maxwell Reed played an employee of Eric Portman's character Eddie who lusts after Eddie's wife, played by Ann Todd.
6.
Maxwell Reed followed it with a rare sympathetic character in Dear Murderer, from a script by Box, which again starred Portman.
7.
Maxwell Reed then made two films opposite Anne Crawford, Night Beat and Daughter of Darkness, where he was back to playing his usual scoundrels.
8.
Maxwell Reed had the lead in a film called Streets Paved with Water but this was abandoned during filming.
9.
Maxwell Reed had more of a support role in The Lost People, co-directed by Muriel Box, and Madness of the Heart, starring Margaret Lockwood.
10.
Maxwell Reed moved to the US to make Flame of Araby, starring Maureen O'Hara and Jeff Chandler.
11.
Maxwell Reed returned to Britain to play the villain opposite Yvonne de Carlo and Rock Hudson in the Anglo-American production Sea Devils ; he was part of the ensemble cast of Ealing Studios' The Square Ring.
12.
Maxwell Reed moved to Hollywood permanently in the late 1950s and guest starred on TV shows like Celebrity Playhouse and The Betty Hutton Show.
13.
Maxwell Reed landed the title role in the 1950s television series Captain David Grief, based on short stories by Jack London.
14.
Maxwell Reed had support roles in films like The Notorious Landlady and appeared as a guest star in television series such as Bonanza, Kraft Mystery Theater, The Beachcomber, The Lloyd Bridges Show, The Great Adventure, Perry Mason and Daniel Boone.
15.
Maxwell Reed's last acting role was back in Britain, the BBC's Sherlock Holmes episode The Dancing Men in 1968.
16.
Maxwell Reed was the first husband of actress Joan Collins, whom he married on 24 May 1952.
17.
Maxwell Reed died from cancer in 1974, aged 55, in London.