Reed, Carol (1906-1976), was an important English motion-picture director. He won the 1968 Academy Award as best director for the musical Oliver!, but he is best known for his realistic and atmospheric dramas.
Reed was born in Putney, London, on Dec. 30, 1906. He was the illegitimate son of the famous English actor Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Reed began his career as an actor in 1924 and started directing plays in 1929. He launched his movie career at Ealing Studios as a dialogue director and made his debut as a feature film director with Midshipman Easy (1933). His first major film was The Stars Look Down, a stark portrait of life in a coal mining community. During World War II (1939-1945), Reed directed several highly praised documentary films, notably The Way Ahead (1944).
Reed collaborated with the English author Graham Greene on The Fallen Idol (1948), The Third Man (1949), and Our Man in Havana (1959), see Greene, Graham . Perhaps Reed’s greatest film was The Third Man, a vivid portrait of intrigue in Vienna, Austria, following World War II. Reed’s other major films include Night Train to Munich (1940), Kipps (1941), Odd Man Out (1947), Outcast of the Islands (1951), and The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965). He was knighted in 1952 and became known as Sir Carol Reed. He died in London on April 25, 1976.
