Dean Reed

Singer, musician, actor, writer, director

Dean Cyril Reed (September 22, 1938 – June 13, 1986) was an American actor, singer and songwriter, director, and social activist who lived a great part of his adult life in South America and then in East Germany.

Nicknamed the Red Elvis, Reed was the best-selling Western performer in Communist countries, with his songs often topping the local charts, and millions of his records were sold in the Eastern bloc and elsewhere mostly under the Melodiya label.

He never renounced his U.S. citizenship, despite often denouncing the U.S. government, and was seen by the Western media as a Communist propaganda beacon.