Lenny McLean
Encyclopedia
Leonard John "Lenny" McLean (9 April 1949 – 28 July 1998), also known as "The Guv'nor," was an East End of London
bareknuckle fighter, bouncer
, criminal and prisoner
, author
, businessman, bodyguard
, enforcer
, weightlifter, television presenter and actor
, and has been referred to as "the hardest man in Britain".
McLean's pugilist reputation began in the late 1960s and was sustained through to the mid 1980s. He has stated that he had been involved in up to 4,000 fight contests.
McLean claimed in his autobiography to have been well known in the criminal underworld. As a respected and feared figure, he often associated with such people as the Kray twins
, Ronnie Biggs
, Ronnie Knight, Dave Courtney
and Charles Bronson
. He was also known in the London nightclub scene
as a bouncer
, where he often managed security.
In his later life, McLean became an actor, performing his most acclaimed role of 'Barry The Baptist' in Guy Ritchie
's 1998
British
gangster
comedy
film
: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
.
in the East End of London
. His father, Leonard McLean senior, had been a Royal Marine during the Second World War, but after being debilitated by a near-fatal disease which he contracted in India
he became a petty criminal and swindler. He died when Lenny was six years old, and was buried in a pauper's grave, as many working class men of the time were.
Lenny's mother, Rose, later married Jim Irwin, who was, like her previous husband, a conman
. Unlike the elder McLean, Irwin was also a violent
alcoholic, who physically abused Lenny and his brothers for many years. By the age of ten, McLean had suffered many broken bones. However, when Lenny's infant brother Raymond was beaten brutally with a belt, McLean's great-uncle Jimmy Spinks
- a feared local gangster - attacked Irwin, nearly killing him, and threatened to cut his throat should he ever need to return to protect the children again.
Lenny admired his great-uncle thereafter and when he became a street fighter
he said that he considered every victory to be won on behalf of his vulnerable younger self. He expressed the rage resulting from his abusive childhood with such abandon that often it would take several men to separate him from his defeated opponent.
During his teenage years, McLean mixed with various criminals for whom he ran errands. He was arrested for petty crimes and served eighteen months in prison. After he was dismissed from his first legitimate job for beating up his foreman
, he worked at odd jobs. By the age of fifteen, McLean realised he could earn a living from fighting and pursued it as his main means of income.
McLean's first unlicensed boxing match came about as a result of a chance meeting while in his late teens; when his car broke down in the Blackwall Tunnel
, rather than using his superior physical strength to push it, he abandoned it and went to buy a replacement from an associate known as Kenny Mac, a gypsy used car salesman in Kingsland Road, Hackney
, only to find the replacement quickly failed too. McLean returned later to demand his money back, but rather than repay it, Kenny Mac offered to give McLean a new car in exchange for McLean fighting in one of Mac's organised bouts later that night in Kenny's yard. McLean's opponent was just under seven feet (213 cm
) tall and weighed twenty stone (127 kg); he lasted less than a minute against McLean, earning McLean £500, a considerable prize at the time.
Kenny Mac and McLean became friends and on numerous later bouts Mac acted as McLean's boxing manager, with McLean subsequently becoming the best-known bare knuckle street fighter in Britain.
formed the National Boxing Council in the 1970s, it allowed the toughest underground fighters in Britain to compete legally. McLean, unable to become a licensed boxer due to his violent reputation and criminal record, entered the world of unlicensed boxing (which, though legal, was not sanctioned by the British Boxing Board of Control
), and he quickly became one of its brightest stars.
McLean, who in his prime was six feet two inches (188 cm) tall and weighed over twenty stone (127 kg), boasted that he could beat anybody, in either a legitimate match or in an unlicensed match with or without gloves, and reputedly sent out challenges to many of the famous boxers of the day, including Muhammed Ali and Mr. T
, though neither contest materialised. Charles Bronson
in his autobiography
, claimed that McLean refused to fight him. However, McLean later said that he wanted to fight Bronson, but that since Bronson was in prison
, the authorities would not have allowed it.
McLean's fights with rival Roy "pretty boy" Shaw
, a former patient of Broadmoor Hospital
, were described by critics as among the bloodiest of the century. McLean lost to Shaw once via verbal submission, which McLean justified by claiming his gloves had been tampered with reducing their manoeuvrability. McLean beat Shaw in a rematch, and Shaw reputedly demanded a third contest. In one of McLean's most notable matches, at the Rainbow Theatre
in Finsbury Park
, London, in April 1986, McLean ended the long standing feud between them with a dramatic first round knockout
in which Shaw was knocked out of the ring.
McLean was not invincible. He was twice knocked out by Johnny "Big Bad" Waldron
during the early days of his boxing career, both times in the first round. He was also knocked out in the first round by Cliff Field (neither knockout loss is mentioned in his autobiography) and beaten on points by Kevin Paddock, although McLean always maintained that he had never lost a fight "on the cobbles," or outside the ring.
Despite these defeats, McLean claims to have competed in almost four thousand fights over three decades, and only lost a small number of these. This led many to accept McLean as the unofficial Heavyweight Champion of the World in unlicensed boxing.
.
McLean was also a publican
, holding joint ownership of a public house
in the East End of London
named the "Guv'Nors" along with Charlie Kray, elder brother of the Kray twins
, reputed to be the "most legitimate" of the three brothers.
McLean has also been described as a "fixer" and a "minder" (or bodyguard
) for criminals and celebrities including Mike Reid
, Freddie Starr
, Boy George
, and the casts of television shows such as EastEnders
and The Bill
.
According to McLean's autobiography, his name was useful for the smooth progress of various criminal dealings, and to warn off members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
and the Mafia
.
McLean has said that he later caught up with and punished one of his assailants, a drug addict named Barry Dalton, who had attempted to shoot McLean at his home while his children were in the house. Dalton had also made many other enemies, and a year later was found dead with a bullet in his head, a murder which McLean has asserted he was innocent of. (McLean L, The Guv'nor, Blake Publishing, 2003)
at the The Hippodrome
in London
's Leicester Square
, when he ejected a man named Gary Humphries who was reportedly on drugs
, streaking
through the nightclub and harassing women. McLean admitted to "giving him a backhander." Humphries died later that night and was found to have a broken jawbone and severe neck
injuries.
McLean was arrested for the murder
of Gary Humphries by the same policeman who had caught the Kray twins
, Superintendent
Leonard "Nipper" Read. McLean immediately protested his innocence, and claimed the police had a vendetta against him because of his association with the Krays.
McLean's charge was reduced to manslaughter
, of which he was cleared at the Old Bailey
when it emerged that Humphries had been in a scuffle with the police
after being ejected from the nightclub. Reportedly, the police had forcefully restrained him with a stranglehold. Professor Gresham, a pathologist who had worked on many high-profile murder cases, gave evidence that the stranglehold applied by the police probably caused the neck injuries which probably caused Mr Humphries' death.
However, it was determined that McLean was responsible for Humphries' broken jaw, and McLean served an 18 month prison sentence for grievous bodily harm
.
and Freddie Starr
, for whom he had "minded," and also after "minding" the cast of television shows such as EastEnders
and The Bill
. McLean started in such roles as Eddie Davies in ITV
's Customs drama The Knock
, and moved to small roles such as that of a police chief in The Fifth Element
, his most acclaimed role being in Guy Ritchie
's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
, playing the part of 'Barry The Baptist'.
's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
that McLean was struck ill by what he believed to be the flu. He was professionally diagnosed with pleurisy
, though further x-ray examination proved he was suffering from lung cancer
which had metastasized to his brain. He died shortly afterward, on 28 July 1998, in Bexley
, Greater London
, a few weeks prior to the release of the film. Director Guy Ritchie
dedicated the film to him and had billboards for the film changed to feature McLean in tribute.
to portray him as he had known the actor for some time and also considered that Fairbrass resembled himself as a younger man. McLean travelled to Hollywood, California
, to discuss the matter with film studio executives, but their preference for Sylvester Stallone
for the part caused McLean to discontinue negotiations. Meanwhile, British rugby
star Lawrence Dallaglio
, actor
Ray Winstone
and pop star
Phil Collins
also showed interest in the role . However, the plan suffered funding problems. One supposed film promoter, later found to have been a conman, took more than a million pounds from McLean and disappeared. The plan has been in uncertain hiatus since McLean's death. World Wrestling Entertainment
wrestler William Regal
said in a television interview that he had been offered the role, but this has never come to fruition.
East End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
bareknuckle fighter, bouncer
Bouncer (doorman)
A bouncer is an informal term for a type of security guard employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs or concerts to provide security, check legal age, and refuse entry to a venue based on criteria such as intoxication, aggressive behavior, or attractiveness...
, criminal and prisoner
Convict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". Convicts are often called prisoners or inmates. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, businessman, bodyguard
Bodyguard
A bodyguard is a type of security operative or government agent who protects a person—usually a famous, wealthy, or politically important figure—from assault, kidnapping, assassination, stalking, loss of confidential information, terrorist attack or other threats.Most important public figures such...
, enforcer
Enforcer
Enforcer may refer to:*A thug who uses physical force or the threat of physical force to coerce others*Enforcer , a role in ice hockey*Enforcer - Gaming :*Enforcer, a units in the Battle Realms video game...
, weightlifter, television presenter and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, and has been referred to as "the hardest man in Britain".
McLean's pugilist reputation began in the late 1960s and was sustained through to the mid 1980s. He has stated that he had been involved in up to 4,000 fight contests.
McLean claimed in his autobiography to have been well known in the criminal underworld. As a respected and feared figure, he often associated with such people as the Kray twins
Kray twins
Reginald "Reggie" Kray and his twin brother Ronald "Ronnie" Kray were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London's East End during the 1950s and 1960s...
, Ronnie Biggs
Ronnie Biggs
Ronald Arthur "Ronnie" Biggs is an English criminal, known for his role in the Great Train Robbery of 1963, for his escape from prison in 1965, for living as a fugitive for 36 years and for his various publicity stunts while in exile. In 2001, he voluntarily returned to the United Kingdom and...
, Ronnie Knight, Dave Courtney
Dave Courtney
Dave Courtney is a self-proclaimed British former gangster who has become both an author and celebrity-gangster figure...
and Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson (prisoner)
Charles Bronson is a Welsh criminal often referred to in the British press as the "most violent prisoner in Britain"....
. He was also known in the London nightclub scene
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
as a bouncer
Bouncer (doorman)
A bouncer is an informal term for a type of security guard employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs or concerts to provide security, check legal age, and refuse entry to a venue based on criteria such as intoxication, aggressive behavior, or attractiveness...
, where he often managed security.
In his later life, McLean became an actor, performing his most acclaimed role of 'Barry The Baptist' in Guy Ritchie
Guy Ritchie
Guy Stuart Ritchie is an English screenwriter and film maker who directed Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Revolver, RocknRolla and Sherlock Holmes.-Early life:...
's 1998
1998 in film
-Events:* February 14 - Sharon Stone marries Phil Bronstein.* Former child star Gary Coleman is charged with assaulting a young female bus driver at a California shopping mall.-Top grossing films:...
British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
gangster
Gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Some gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster....
comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a 1998 British crime film directed and written by Guy Ritchie. The story is a heist film involving a self-confident young card sharp who loses £500,000 to a powerful crime lord in a rigged game of three card brag...
.
Early life
Lennie McLean was born into a large working-class family in HoxtonHoxton
Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, immediately north of the financial district of the City of London. The area of Hoxton is bordered by Regent's Canal on the north side, Wharf Road and City Road on the west, Old Street on the south, and Kingsland Road on the east.Hoxton is also a...
in the East End of London
East End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
. His father, Leonard McLean senior, had been a Royal Marine during the Second World War, but after being debilitated by a near-fatal disease which he contracted in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
he became a petty criminal and swindler. He died when Lenny was six years old, and was buried in a pauper's grave, as many working class men of the time were.
Lenny's mother, Rose, later married Jim Irwin, who was, like her previous husband, a conman
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
. Unlike the elder McLean, Irwin was also a violent
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
alcoholic, who physically abused Lenny and his brothers for many years. By the age of ten, McLean had suffered many broken bones. However, when Lenny's infant brother Raymond was beaten brutally with a belt, McLean's great-uncle Jimmy Spinks
Jimmy Spinks
Jimmy Spinks was a famed East End of London criminal and bareknuckle fighter.In his earlier years, he was said to have been extremely handsome and was approached by a man who was also an acting agent of James Cagney, who asked Spinks if he would have liked to act. Spinks replied in the negative,...
- a feared local gangster - attacked Irwin, nearly killing him, and threatened to cut his throat should he ever need to return to protect the children again.
Lenny admired his great-uncle thereafter and when he became a street fighter
Street Fighter
, commonly abbreviated as SF, is a series of Fighting Games developed in Japan in which the players pit the video games' competitive fighters from around the world, each with his or her own unique fighting style, against one another...
he said that he considered every victory to be won on behalf of his vulnerable younger self. He expressed the rage resulting from his abusive childhood with such abandon that often it would take several men to separate him from his defeated opponent.
During his teenage years, McLean mixed with various criminals for whom he ran errands. He was arrested for petty crimes and served eighteen months in prison. After he was dismissed from his first legitimate job for beating up his foreman
Construction foreman
A construction foreman is the worker or tradesman who is in charge of a construction crew. While traditionally this role has been assumed by a senior male worker, the title in the modern sense is gender non-specific in intent...
, he worked at odd jobs. By the age of fifteen, McLean realised he could earn a living from fighting and pursued it as his main means of income.
McLean's first unlicensed boxing match came about as a result of a chance meeting while in his late teens; when his car broke down in the Blackwall Tunnel
Blackwall Tunnel
The Blackwall Tunnel is a pair of road tunnels underneath the River Thames in east London, linking the London Borough of Tower Hamlets with the London Borough of Greenwich, and part of the A102 road. The northern portal lies just south of the East India Dock Road in Blackwall; the southern...
, rather than using his superior physical strength to push it, he abandoned it and went to buy a replacement from an associate known as Kenny Mac, a gypsy used car salesman in Kingsland Road, Hackney
London Borough of Hackney
The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....
, only to find the replacement quickly failed too. McLean returned later to demand his money back, but rather than repay it, Kenny Mac offered to give McLean a new car in exchange for McLean fighting in one of Mac's organised bouts later that night in Kenny's yard. McLean's opponent was just under seven feet (213 cm
CM
- Places :* Cameroon, which has the ISO and FIPS country code "CM"** .cm, the country code top-level domain for Cameroon* Chelmsford, which has the British post code "CM"- Science :* Centimetre a unit of length equal to one hundredth of a metre...
) tall and weighed twenty stone (127 kg); he lasted less than a minute against McLean, earning McLean £500, a considerable prize at the time.
Kenny Mac and McLean became friends and on numerous later bouts Mac acted as McLean's boxing manager, with McLean subsequently becoming the best-known bare knuckle street fighter in Britain.
Personal life
Aged twenty, McLean married Val. They had two children, a boy and a girl, named Jamie and Kelly. McLean described his family as his "rock," whose existence helped him to reject a life solely devoted to crime, and for whom he maintained some self-control during his fights.Unlicensed boxing
When Frank WarrenFrank Warren (promoter)
Frank Darren Warren is an English boxing manager and promoter.-Early life and early career:The son of a bookmaker, Warren trained as a solicitor's clerk with J Tickle & Co on Southampton Row in London....
formed the National Boxing Council in the 1970s, it allowed the toughest underground fighters in Britain to compete legally. McLean, unable to become a licensed boxer due to his violent reputation and criminal record, entered the world of unlicensed boxing (which, though legal, was not sanctioned by the British Boxing Board of Control
British Boxing Board of Control
The British Boxing Board of Control is the governing body of professional boxing in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1929 from the old National Sporting Club and is headquartered in Cardiff.- Councils :...
), and he quickly became one of its brightest stars.
McLean, who in his prime was six feet two inches (188 cm) tall and weighed over twenty stone (127 kg), boasted that he could beat anybody, in either a legitimate match or in an unlicensed match with or without gloves, and reputedly sent out challenges to many of the famous boxers of the day, including Muhammed Ali and Mr. T
Mr. T
Mr. T is an American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team, as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III, and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. Mr. T is known for his trademark African Mandinka warrior hairstyle, his gold jewelry,...
, though neither contest materialised. Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson (prisoner)
Charles Bronson is a Welsh criminal often referred to in the British press as the "most violent prisoner in Britain"....
in his autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, claimed that McLean refused to fight him. However, McLean later said that he wanted to fight Bronson, but that since Bronson was in prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
, the authorities would not have allowed it.
McLean's fights with rival Roy "pretty boy" Shaw
Roy Shaw
Royston Henry Shaw , also known as Roy "Pretty Boy" Shaw, Roy "Mean Machine" Shaw and Roy West, is an English millionaire, real estate investor, author and businessman from the East End of London who was formerly a notorious criminal and Category A prisoner...
, a former patient of Broadmoor Hospital
Broadmoor Hospital
Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It is the best known of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth and Rampton...
, were described by critics as among the bloodiest of the century. McLean lost to Shaw once via verbal submission, which McLean justified by claiming his gloves had been tampered with reducing their manoeuvrability. McLean beat Shaw in a rematch, and Shaw reputedly demanded a third contest. In one of McLean's most notable matches, at the Rainbow Theatre
Rainbow Theatre (Finsbury Park)
The Rainbow Theatre is a Grade II*-listed building, in the Finsbury Park area of North London. Built as a cinema in 1930, it later became well known as a music venue and is now a Pentecostal church.-Cinema:...
in Finsbury Park
Finsbury Park, London
Finsbury Park is an area in north London, England which grew up around an important railway interchange at the junction of the London Boroughs of Islington, Haringey and Hackney...
, London, in April 1986, McLean ended the long standing feud between them with a dramatic first round knockout
Knockout
A knockout is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, Karate and others sports involving striking...
in which Shaw was knocked out of the ring.
McLean was not invincible. He was twice knocked out by Johnny "Big Bad" Waldron
Johnny Waldron
Johnny Waldron , also known as "Big Bad" Johnny Waldron, was a Light Heavyweight professional boxer based in Great Britain and Germany during the 1970s and early 1980s...
during the early days of his boxing career, both times in the first round. He was also knocked out in the first round by Cliff Field (neither knockout loss is mentioned in his autobiography) and beaten on points by Kevin Paddock, although McLean always maintained that he had never lost a fight "on the cobbles," or outside the ring.
Despite these defeats, McLean claims to have competed in almost four thousand fights over three decades, and only lost a small number of these. This led many to accept McLean as the unofficial Heavyweight Champion of the World in unlicensed boxing.
Other professions
With his growing fame, McLean also became known as "The King of Bouncers" around many of the clubs and pubs in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
McLean was also a publican
Publican
In antiquity, publicans were public contractors, in which role they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the collection of port duties, and oversaw public building projects...
, holding joint ownership of a public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
in the East End of London
East End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
named the "Guv'Nors" along with Charlie Kray, elder brother of the Kray twins
Kray twins
Reginald "Reggie" Kray and his twin brother Ronald "Ronnie" Kray were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London's East End during the 1950s and 1960s...
, reputed to be the "most legitimate" of the three brothers.
McLean has also been described as a "fixer" and a "minder" (or bodyguard
Bodyguard
A bodyguard is a type of security operative or government agent who protects a person—usually a famous, wealthy, or politically important figure—from assault, kidnapping, assassination, stalking, loss of confidential information, terrorist attack or other threats.Most important public figures such...
) for criminals and celebrities including Mike Reid
Mike Reid (entertainer)
Michael Reid was an English comedian, actor, author and occasional television presenter from Hackney in east London, who is best remembered for playing the role of Frank Butcher in EastEnders and hosting the popular children's TV show Runaround...
, Freddie Starr
Freddie Starr
Freddie Starr is an English comedian who became famous in the early 1970s. He is also an impressionist and singer, with a chart album After the Laughter and UK Top 10 single, "It's You", in March 1974 to his credit.-Early career:Under his real name, he appeared as a teenager in the film Violent...
, Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
, and the casts of television shows such as EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
and The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
.
According to McLean's autobiography, his name was useful for the smooth progress of various criminal dealings, and to warn off members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
and the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
.
Attempts on McLean's life
Being the best-known figure in unlicensed boxing produced for McLean not only fans, but also enemies, including some of his rivals' supporters, and some who had lost money betting on McLean's opponents. McLean also made enemies from years of ejecting people from pubs and clubs. He suffered two bullet wounds from separate attacks, and was attacked from behind and stabbed on two occasions.McLean has said that he later caught up with and punished one of his assailants, a drug addict named Barry Dalton, who had attempted to shoot McLean at his home while his children were in the house. Dalton had also made many other enemies, and a year later was found dead with a bullet in his head, a murder which McLean has asserted he was innocent of. (McLean L, The Guv'nor, Blake Publishing, 2003)
1992 court case
In 1992, McLean was working as the head doormanBouncer (doorman)
A bouncer is an informal term for a type of security guard employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs or concerts to provide security, check legal age, and refuse entry to a venue based on criteria such as intoxication, aggressive behavior, or attractiveness...
at the The Hippodrome
Hippodrome, London
The Hippodrome is a building on the corner of Charing Cross Road and Leicester Square in the City of Westminster, London. The name was used for many different theatres and music halls, of which the London Hippodrome is one of only a few survivors...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Leicester Square
Leicester Square
Leicester Square is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. The Square lies within an area bound by Lisle Street, to the north; Charing Cross Road, to the east; Orange Street, to the south; and Whitcomb Street, to the west...
, when he ejected a man named Gary Humphries who was reportedly on drugs
DRUGS
Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows are an American post-hardcore band formed in 2010. They released their debut self-titled album on February 22, 2011.- Formation :...
, streaking
Streaking
Streaking is the act of running nude through a public place.-History:On 5 July 1799, a Friday evening at 7 o'clock, a naked man was arrested at the Mansion House, London, and sent to the Poultry Compter...
through the nightclub and harassing women. McLean admitted to "giving him a backhander." Humphries died later that night and was found to have a broken jawbone and severe neck
Neck
The neck is the part of the body, on many terrestrial or secondarily aquatic vertebrates, that distinguishes the head from the torso or trunk. The adjective signifying "of the neck" is cervical .-Boner anatomy: The cervical spine:The cervical portion of the human spine comprises seven boney...
injuries.
McLean was arrested for the murder
Murder in English law
Murder is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. It is considered the most serious form of homicide, in which one person kills another either intending to cause death or intending to cause serious injury .-Actus reus:The definition of the actus reus Murder is an offence under the...
of Gary Humphries by the same policeman who had caught the Kray twins
Kray twins
Reginald "Reggie" Kray and his twin brother Ronald "Ronnie" Kray were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London's East End during the 1950s and 1960s...
, Superintendent
Superintendent (police)
Superintendent , often shortened to "super", is a rank in British police services and in most English-speaking Commonwealth nations. In many Commonwealth countries the full version is superintendent of police...
Leonard "Nipper" Read. McLean immediately protested his innocence, and claimed the police had a vendetta against him because of his association with the Krays.
McLean's charge was reduced to manslaughter
Manslaughter in English law
In the English law of homicide, manslaughter is a less serious offence than murder, the differential being between levels of fault based on the mens rea . In England and Wales, the usual practice is to prefer a charge of murder, with the judge or defence able to introduce manslaughter as an option...
, of which he was cleared at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
when it emerged that Humphries had been in a scuffle with the police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
after being ejected from the nightclub. Reportedly, the police had forcefully restrained him with a stranglehold. Professor Gresham, a pathologist who had worked on many high-profile murder cases, gave evidence that the stranglehold applied by the police probably caused the neck injuries which probably caused Mr Humphries' death.
However, it was determined that McLean was responsible for Humphries' broken jaw, and McLean served an 18 month prison sentence for grievous bodily harm
Grievous bodily harm
Grievous bodily harm is a term of art used in English criminal law which has become synonymous with the offences that are created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861....
.
Acting career
McLean was featured prominently in a television documentary on nightclub security staff, titled Bouncers. He gravitated towards acting after being introduced to an agent by two long-term show-business friends, Mike ReidMike Reid (entertainer)
Michael Reid was an English comedian, actor, author and occasional television presenter from Hackney in east London, who is best remembered for playing the role of Frank Butcher in EastEnders and hosting the popular children's TV show Runaround...
and Freddie Starr
Freddie Starr
Freddie Starr is an English comedian who became famous in the early 1970s. He is also an impressionist and singer, with a chart album After the Laughter and UK Top 10 single, "It's You", in March 1974 to his credit.-Early career:Under his real name, he appeared as a teenager in the film Violent...
, for whom he had "minded," and also after "minding" the cast of television shows such as EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
and The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
. McLean started in such roles as Eddie Davies in ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's Customs drama The Knock
The Knock
The Knock was a primetime UK drama series, created by Anita Bronson and broadcast on ITV from 1994 to 2000, which portrayed the activities of customs officers from Her Majesty's Customs and Excise....
, and moved to small roles such as that of a police chief in The Fifth Element
The Fifth Element
The Fifth Element is a 1997 French science fiction film directed, co-written, and based on a story by Luc Besson, starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and Milla Jovovich...
, his most acclaimed role being in Guy Ritchie
Guy Ritchie
Guy Stuart Ritchie is an English screenwriter and film maker who directed Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Revolver, RocknRolla and Sherlock Holmes.-Early life:...
's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a 1998 British crime film directed and written by Guy Ritchie. The story is a heist film involving a self-confident young card sharp who loses £500,000 to a powerful crime lord in a rigged game of three card brag...
, playing the part of 'Barry The Baptist'.
Death
It was during the filming of Guy RitchieGuy Ritchie
Guy Stuart Ritchie is an English screenwriter and film maker who directed Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Revolver, RocknRolla and Sherlock Holmes.-Early life:...
's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a 1998 British crime film directed and written by Guy Ritchie. The story is a heist film involving a self-confident young card sharp who loses £500,000 to a powerful crime lord in a rigged game of three card brag...
that McLean was struck ill by what he believed to be the flu. He was professionally diagnosed with pleurisy
Pleurisy
Pleurisy is an inflammation of the pleura, the lining of the pleural cavity surrounding the lungs. Among other things, infections are the most common cause of pleurisy....
, though further x-ray examination proved he was suffering from lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
which had metastasized to his brain. He died shortly afterward, on 28 July 1998, in Bexley
London Borough of Bexley
The London Borough of Bexley lies in south east Greater London, and is a borough referred to as part of Outer London. It has common borders with the London Borough of Bromley to the south, the London Borough of Greenwich to the west, across the River Thames to the north it borders the London...
, Greater London
Greater London
Greater London is the top-level administrative division of England covering London. It was created in 1965 and spans the City of London, including Middle Temple and Inner Temple, and the 32 London boroughs. This territory is coterminate with the London Government Office Region and the London...
, a few weeks prior to the release of the film. Director Guy Ritchie
Guy Ritchie
Guy Stuart Ritchie is an English screenwriter and film maker who directed Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Revolver, RocknRolla and Sherlock Holmes.-Early life:...
dedicated the film to him and had billboards for the film changed to feature McLean in tribute.
Books
Lenny McLean's autobiography, titled The Guv'nor, written with Peter Gerrard, was published shortly before his death, and immediately occupied the number one position on the bestsellers' list. Since Maclean's death, Peter Gerrard has written another book about McLean, titled The Guv'nor: A Celebration. McLean's widow, Val, has written Married To The Guv'nor with Peter Gerrard, and, with Anthony Thomas, has produced a second book about McLean titled The Guv'nor Through The Eyes Of Others.Lenny McLean film
In his autobiography, McLean recounts that various film studios had expressed an interest in making a film based on his life and career in unlicensed boxing. McLean wanted Craig FairbrassCraig Fairbrass
Craig Fairbrass is an English actor. He is known for his distinctive Cockney accent.-Life and career:Fairbrass was born in Stepney, London. He made his acting debut in an episode of the television series Shelley in 1980. This was followed by appearances in series such as Emmerdale, Three Up Two...
to portray him as he had known the actor for some time and also considered that Fairbrass resembled himself as a younger man. McLean travelled to Hollywood, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, to discuss the matter with film studio executives, but their preference for Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
for the part caused McLean to discontinue negotiations. Meanwhile, British rugby
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
star Lawrence Dallaglio
Lawrence Dallaglio
Lorenzo Bruno Nero "Lawrence" Dallaglio, OBE is a retired English rugby union player and former captain of the English national team. He played as a flanker or number eight for London Wasps and never played for another club, having arrived at Sudbury as a teenager...
, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
Ray Winstone
Ray Winstone
Raymond Andrew "Ray" Winstone is an English film and television actor. He is mostly known for his "tough guy" roles, beginning with that of Carlin in the 1979 film Scum and as Will Scarlet in the cult television adventure series Robin of Sherwood. He has also become well known as a voice over...
and pop star
Pop Star
"Pop Star" is a 2005 single from Japanese singer Ken Hirai. The single went on to top the 2005 Oricon Charts and is known for its remarkable music video, featuring Ken in seven different personas, including a raccoon and his own manager. The Video also helped Ken break into the US and Canadian...
Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
also showed interest in the role . However, the plan suffered funding problems. One supposed film promoter, later found to have been a conman, took more than a million pounds from McLean and disappeared. The plan has been in uncertain hiatus since McLean's death. World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
wrestler William Regal
Darren Matthews
Darren Kenneth Matthews , is an English professional wrestler, author and color commentator currently signed to WWE and competing on the SmackDown brand under the ring name William Regal. He is also known for his time in World Championship Wrestling under the ring name Steven Regal...
said in a television interview that he had been offered the role, but this has never come to fruition.
See also
- List of bare-knuckle boxers
- List of notable bouncers
- List of notable brain tumor patients