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Sir Carol Reed (December 30, 1906-April 25, 1976) was an English film director, winner of an Academy Award for his interpretation of the musical, Oliver! (1968).
A son of the great actor-producer Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and his mistress May Pinney, 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. He embarked on an acting career while still in his teens, but soon went into the role of producer/director, and was responsible for Kipps (1941), The Third Man (1949) and Our Man in Havana, becoming a prime essayist of film versions of the novels of Graham Greene.
From 1943 until 1947, he was married to the elegant British film star Diana Wynyard (1943 to 1947). After their divorce, he married, in 1948, the actress Penelope Dudley Ward, 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 actor Oliver Reed. His stepdaughter, Miss Ward's daughter, Tracy Reed, acted in numerous films, notably as the only woman in Dr. Strangelove.
He was knighted in 1953.
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