Milton Reid

Milton Reid — Biography

Milton Reid, born Milton Rutherford Reid on 29 April 1917 in Bombay, was an actor and former professional wrestler who died in 1987. His father was a British customs and excise inspector and his mother Indian; his distinctive look, the result of Noonan syndrome, shaped the roles he later played. He settled in London in 1936, served in the Army during the Second World War, and made his screen debut as an extra in The Way Ahead (1944).

After his discharge he took up professional wrestling under the names Jungle Boy and The Mighty Chang before moving into acting, where his imposing build kept him busy for decades as a heavy and villain in British film and television. He challenged Harold Sakata to a wrestling match over the role of Oddjob in Goldfinger, but the part went to Sakata instead. His credits include Ferry to Hong Kong (1959), Swiss Family Robinson (1960), Captain Clegg (1962), and the Bond films Dr. No (1962), Casino Royale (1967) and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), as well as an appearance in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (1968).

Roles in several horror and British sex films of the 1970s, including a handful alongside pornographic actress Mary Millington, damaged his mainstream career after a critical article in the Sunday People. In 1980 he left his wife Bertha in England and returned to India to try his luck in Bollywood; he reportedly died of a heart attack in Bengaluru in 1987, though correspondence his son received as late as 1986 has left the exact date in question.