Mike Reid (entertainer)

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Michael "Mike" Reid (born 19 January 1940) is an English "Cockney" comedian and character actor.

1 Personal life
2 Career
3 Filmography
4 External links

[edit] Personal life

Mike Reid was born in Hackney, London in 1940. During his residence in London, World War II was ongoing, and The Blitz bombings of London caused him and his family to relocate to somewhere safer.

In 1958 he married a woman called Sheila and had a daughter called Jane. They divorced in 1967 after which he married Shirley Collins in 1971 and has a son, Michael. His other son, Mark, committed suicide in 1990.

[edit] Career

In the 1960s Mike Reid worked as a stand-up comedian in clubs and board cruise liners. Then he worked as a film and television extra appearing in Doctor Who, The Champions and Department S and as a stunt driver, working on the films Casino Royale (1967), Up the Junction (1967) and The Dirty Dozen (1967).

He then became one of the original stars of The Comedians, a popular TV series of the 1970s produced by Johnnie Hamp for Granada Television, which consisted entirely of short slots by mature stand-up comedians. Reid capitalised on his initial success with a one-off hit record, a novelty version of The Ugly Duckling. In the late 1970s he became the host of the ITV childrens tv quiz show Runaround, fondly remembered for its incomprehensible rules and the incongruity of Reid as presenter.

Then in the late 1980s he gained much popularity as Frank Butcher on the BBC Soap opera EastEnders. The part of Butcher earned Reid the public persona of being pessimistic that he enjoyed acting against, for instance in television adverts for the soft drink Oasis. He joined the show in 1987 and in 1994 he took a long hiatus after he was under stress from the depression storyline his character Frank was under. He returned in December 1997 full time and remained on the show until November 2000 when he announced he would be quitting after yet another health scare. In the same year he appeared in the gangster movie Snatch which was directed by Guy Ritchie.

He was then persauded to return as Frank Butcher for a guest stint in January 2002 and for a spin-off special titled Perfectly Frank in 2003. He is now (predominantly) retired from showbusiness and lives in a villa in Spain.

However, he made yet another comeback to EastEnders, in early December 2005, for another week stint. He later appeared The Paul O'Grady Show and made it clear that he had no interest in any possible future re-appearances in the programme.