I ask your readers' help with a biography I have been commissioned to write on the late Oliver Reed.

Reed - equally well known for his rowdy and drunken behaviour as for his acting ability - was born in south London in 1938.

During the 1940s and early 1950s he attended more than a dozen boarding schools across England before his National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Between 1958 and his sudden death in Malta earlier this year Oliver Reed made more than 100 films. He remains the only British screen actor never to have given a single stage performance.

I am anxious to make contact with anyone who grew up with Oliver Reed, either as a personal or school friend, served with him in the Army, worked with him before or during his 40-year acting career or was acquainted with him.

I should also like to see photographs - preferably unpublished - of Reed, his parents or relatives.

All letters will be answered and treated in the strictest confidence.

If you can help with my research please write direct to me:

Cliff Goodwin,

5 Poplar Avenue,

Burnopfield,

Newcastle NE16 6HZ.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.