O’Toole was the best of the bunch. He had charm and, at one time, incredible good looks. Plus he wasn’t a jerk. Harris and Burton had enough talent they could get away with being assh@les. My favorite was Reed. Alas, he was an incredible jerk and ruined any chance to be a big star.
Reed WAS a huge star in Britain and Europe.
But he actually turned down the chance in the early 70’s to move to the US and it seems that he turned down not only ‘The Big Mick’ role in The Sting,but also Quint in Jaws after Sterling Hayden turned it down(for tax reasons, as he lived in France, and making Jaws would have meant huge back taxes because he would have had to return to the US).
He was alson in 1969, right at the top of the list to replace Sean Connery as Bond, but Broccoli disliked his hellraising, although he liked Reed and thought him perfect.