Dean Cyril Reed (September 22, 1938 – June 13, 1986) was an American actor, singer-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.

[2] His father was a high school math and history teacher, described as a staunch anticommunist and supporter of Barry Goldwater,[3] while his mother was a homemaker.

Capitol groomed him to be a teen idol and he produced some modestly popular singles, including "Annabelle", "The Search", "No Wonder", "A Pair of Scissors", "I Kissed a Queen", and "Our Summer Romance".

[3] Back in Buenos Aires, his politics eventually ran foul of Argentine government policies after the 1966 military coup and he was deported.

[8] In 1970, a week prior to the election of Chilean president Salvador Allende, he was arrested for washing a U.S. flag in front of Santiago's U.S. consulate.

The majority of his songs during this period were uncertified covers of successful hits of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, The Beatles and others.

[10] In 1978 he directed and starred in El Cantor (The Singer), a biopic about his friend Víctor Jara, the popular Chilean singer-songwriter murdered by the military after the 1973 coup d'état against President Salvador Allende.

Despite his opposition to many US government and economic policies, he professed his love of America until the end of his life, and his songs often reflected his fondness for his homeland.

[citation needed] In a 1986 television interview on CBS's 60 Minutes, he defended the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and the building of the Berlin Wall, and compared Reagan negatively to Stalin, which angered many in the U.S.,[11] including Reed's family and friends.

[citation needed] Reed married an East German woman, Wiebke Dorndeck (née Schmidt), in 1973, with whom he had a second daughter, Natascha, born 1975.

[citation needed] In 1981, he married his third wife, East German actress Renate Blume, with whom he stayed until his death despite tensions and allegations that she was informing on him for the Stasi.

"[15] In 2004, Russia's Rossiya television channel aired a documentary on Dean Reed, entitled Кто Вы, мистер Рид?

[20] Reed's life story influenced Grammy Award-winning writer and comedian Lewis Black and composer Rusty Magee to create the musical The Czar of Rock and Roll.

[23] In 1991 Tom Hanks optioned a biography by Reggie Nadelson, titled Comrade Rockstar, finally published in the U.S. by Walker & Company in 2006.

[28][29][30] In 2001, English singer-songwriter Steve Bush published the song "Salome for Dean Reed" on the album Blossom Freak.