Butch aka Travis

I thought i might share with everone my Google Earth stuff

This is my home town of Cleveland, QLD

This is my family home in Cleveland

And this is the Newlands Rugby Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa, which the foreboding Table Moutain in the background

cool huh?

In the last few months or so i have found myself, gravitsating towards 70’s films.
I can tell you why.

The first reason is because i love the grittyness of them. I also like the music, which i have heard ever since i was a kid. I used to wake every Sunday moring to the sounds of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, or maybe Van Morrison, or Cat Stevens, and then there was the occasionalLed Zeppelin.

It was a while before i was able to appreciate this music, but i really think that the 70’s was the last time people pushed themselves, i mean really fucking pushed themselves, they pushed their minds with drugs to the point of bending, they turned movies into artworks (Poets are to Poem, as what Directors are to Films), the cars, the stars, the lifestyles, the excess of it all and the music was so effortlessly cool, even right now i am listening to Paul McCartney’s Maybe I’m Amazed.

But my eyes were really opened when my dad and i sat down and watched “Tommy” by ‘The Who’. Its a musical from start to finish, but a rock musical. After watching it i was hooked, the music was awesome, the story was tuff as fCuk. However, what really caught my eye was a man by the name of Oliver Reed. I thought his singing wasn’t great, and even his acting was not spot on, but he epitomised all i love of the 70’s. He looked cool, the chops, the hair, he was a biggish lad, and upon further investigation i found that Mr. Reed was a bad MoFo, he drank himself to near death on several occasions, smoked like a truckie and on top of that he was a talented rugby player. He was mates with two other English actors at the time Richard Harris and Peter O’Toole. So what really struck me was how these boys, who were the icons of British Film, lived so hard. This compared to the pussy ass soft handed male actors we have today,

imagine Tom Hanks drinking himself to near death, then waking up only to discover he had somehow married a 20 year old cocktail waitress….. pretty unbelievable huh? Well guess what, Oliver Reed did it.

Nowadays in this PC world, our Actors have to be role models, their all UN Ambassadors, or really uptight and religious, they have boundaries, so please let me introduce my favourite actors, and you can compare for yourself.

Oliver Reed

pic from here
Born 13 February 1938
Died 2 May 1999

Oliver Reed is my favourite, he was a tuff guy, a former bouncer that tried his hand at acting and somehow pulled it off somehow, he drank alot of alcohol, smoked alot of cigarettes and shagged alot of women, he died during the making of Gladiator (thats right, with Russel Crowe), he was the old man who bought the slaves ‘Proximo’, he died of a heart attack, time eventually caught up to him, i am surprised he lived for so long.

Other Roles of note
Frank Hobbs - ‘Tommy’
Bill Sikes - ‘Oliver!’
Vito Cipriani - ‘Revolver’

Peter O’Toole

Picture from here
2 August 1932

I have a theory this was the baddest out of them all. He had a fairly hard start to life, but by the time he was in his 20’s he was a massive star, and he and Reed and Harris used to drink each other stupid, O’Toole aged prematurley and was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1965, but somehow it dissapeared (?!), he apparently stopped drinking, but got back on it later in life.

Roles of Note:
Man of La Mancha (1972) …. Don Quixote de La Mancha
Peter O’Toole …. T.E. Lawrence

Peter O’Toole is still alive.

Richard Harris

Picture from here
1 October 1930 -
25 October 2002

Its hard to think that the original and lovable Principle Dumbledore from Harry Potter was a hard drinking hell raiser in his youth. He was a very talented actor, but again, lived too hard to care. He once remarked that he cant remember making any films in the 70’s, despite making several, he won an award for his portrayal of King Arthur in Camelot in 1967. Harris was also a fantastic Rugby Player, but was diagnosed with TB, so he never followed it up.

Gladiator (2000) …. Marcus Aurelius
The Field (1990) …. ‘Bull’ McCabe
Hawaii (1966) …. Rafer Hoxworth
The Guns of Navarone (1961) …. Squadron Leader Howard Barnsby RAAF

Richard Harris Died of hodgkin’s disease in 2000

Robert Shaw

Picture from here
9 August 1927 -
28 August 1978

Robert Shaw is nearly never heard of these days, he was a good actor, who never reached 50 y.o. Married 3 times (once while drunk). He lived in a pub for 5 months despite being a vewry wealthy, very famous movie star. The pub is now named after him.

Jaws (1975) …. Quint
The Sting (1973) …. Doyle Lonnegan

Robert Shaw died of a heart attack from excessive drinking.

Other Hard living actors of note:

Lee Marvin

from here
19 February 1924 -
29 August 1987
Died of a Heart Attack

W.C. Fields

Picture from here
29 January 1880 -
25 December 1946
Apprently, Fields was never seen without a drink in his hand, and surprisingly was never seen to be drunk, he must’ve been however as he died of a stomach hemorrhage from tooo much alcohol, i put fields in here despite the fact he is a pre 70’s actor for the hell of it.

John Wayne

from here
26 May 1907 -
11 June 1979

Mr Cowboy himself, drank and smoked himself to death, he died of lung & stomach cancer, too much booze and cigarettes.

NOW, Compare this to

Tom Cruise

need i say anything at all?