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Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director, most famous for directing The Third Man, The Agony and the Ecstasy and Oliver!. He won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Director for Oliver!.

Early life

The son of actor-producer Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and his mistress, May Pinney Reed, Carol Reed was born in Putney, London, and educated at The King's School, Canterbury. Reed served in the British Army during the Second World War, giving him many experiences which appeared in his later films.

Career

He embarked on an acting career while still in his teens, but soon went into the role of producer/director, and was responsible for The Stars Look Down (1939), Kipps (1941), Odd Man Out (1947), The Fallen Idol (1948), Outcast of the Islands (1952), Our Man in Havana (1959), and The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965). The Fallen Idol, The Third Man, and Our Man in Havana are based on the work of Graham Greene.

From 1943 until 1947, he was married to the British film star Diana Wynyard. After their divorce, he married, in 1948, the actress Penelope Dudley Ward, also known as Pempie, the elder daughter of Freda Dudley Ward, who had been a mistress of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII of the United Kingdom and Duke of Windsor. They had one son, Max, and a nephew was the actor Oliver Reed. His stepdaughter, Miss Ward's daughter, Tracy Reed, acted in numerous films, notably as the only woman in Dr. Strangelove.

In 1953, he became only the second British film director to be knighted for his craft. The first was Sir Alexander Korda in 1942.

Death

Carol Reed died from a heart attack on 25 April 1976 at his home in Chelsea, London at the age of 69.

Filmography

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References

External links

• Carol Reed at the Internet Movie Database
• Carol Reed at Allmovie
• Carol Reed at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
• Carol Reed at Find a Grave