Lenny McLean
Lenny Mclean | |
|---|---|
| File:Lennymclean.jpg | |
| Born | Leonard John McLean |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, Bouncer, Author, Unlicensed Boxer, Bareknuckle Boxer |
| Website | http://www.lennymclean.co.uk |
Leonard McLean (9 April, 1949 - 28 July, 1998), better known as "The Guv'nor", was a famed East End of London bareknuckle fighter, bouncer, former criminal, author, television presenter, and actor; McLean was often referred to as "the hardest man in Britain".
McLean made his name in the late 1960s and remained famous in the 1970s through to the mid 1980s. McLean stated that he had been involved in between 2,000 to 3,000 fights in his life on the streets or "cobbles", in pubs and clubs and in the ring. Many consider him the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world in the sphere of unlicensed boxing. However, there are some critics who claim McLean was nothing more than a self-promoting bully whose victories were embellished. These people are generally those he beat like Roy Shaw and those he fell out with like his second cousin, the famous boxing promoter Frank Warren, who went from boasting of McLean's impressive unlicensed boxing record to questioning it, and calling him "a terrible bully".
Adding to McLean's strongman image was his famed weightlifting ability (he supposedly bench pressed 500 pounds). McLean gained an international tough guy reputation after knocking out John McCormack, reputedly the Mafia's hardest man, in under three minutes in New York City in the early 1980s. Well known throughout the London criminal underworld, McLean was a much respected and feared figure, often associated with such figures as the Kray twins, Ronnie Biggs, Ronnie Knight, Dave Courtney and Charles Bronson. He was also well known around the London nightclub scene as a bouncer, where he often ran security. He also ran "minded" the cast and crew of television shows such as EastEnders and The Bill.
In later life, McLean branched out into acting. His most acclaimed role was in Guy Ritchie's 1998 British gangster comedy film: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, playing the part of 'Barry The Baptist'. A few months after filming Lock, Stock, McLean died of brain cancer and lung cancer. The film was dedicated to his memory.
Early life
Born in Hoxton, London, McLean came from a very large working-class family in the East End of London. From a young age he was very close to his father, Leonard McLean senior, who had been a Royal Marine during the Second World War; but had since resorted to petty crime and various swindles after being debilitated by a near-fatal disease he contracted in India. McLean senior died when his son Lenny was only six, and was buried in a "pauper's grave", as many working class men of the time were.
Lenny's mother, Rose, later remarried to a man who, like her previous husband, was a well known local conman, a large man known as Jim Irwin. However, unlike McLean senior, Jim Irwin was a violent alcoholic, and Lenny and his brothers were viciously abused for many years. By the age of ten, McLean had his jaw broken twice, along with many other bones. However, when Lenny's infant brother Raymond was beaten within an inch of his life by Irwin with a belt, McLean's great-uncle Jimmy Spinks - a feared and well respected local gangster - got involved and assaulted Irwin, nearly killing him, and told him if he ever returned he would cut him from ear to ear so he had a face like his, a "Chelsea grin".
Lenny looked up to his uncle from there on and turned to street fighting with a determination never to be beaten again by any man. Every man he beat, he said, would be for that little defenceless boy he once was. He expended the bottled up rage of his abusive childhood with such ferocity that many times it would take three or more men to pull him off his opponent.
During his teenage years, McLean mixed with various villainous figures for whom he ran errands. McLean was arrested for petty crimes and served eighteen months in prison. He worked odd jobs to get by after he was fired from his first legitimate job for beating up his "cocky" foreman. By the time he was fifteen, McLean realised he could make a good 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 still in his late teens; McLean's car broke down in the Blackwall Tunnel and he left it there in a temper. He then went to buy a car from an associate known as Kenny Mac, a gypsy used car salesman in Kingsland Road, Hackney, only to find the "guarantee until the end of the road" wasn't a joke. McLean returned a short while later and demanded his money back, but Kenny Mac wasn't willing to repay McLean. Instead, Mac offered to give McLean a brand new car model, the first British Ford Escort, in exchange for McLean fighting in one of Mac's organised bouts later that night in Kenny's yard. McLean's gypsy opponent was just under seven foot high and weighed in at twenty stone; he lasted less then a minute against McLean, earning McLean a "monkey" (£500), a lot of money at the time. Reportedly, though, Kenny Mac made much more on side-bets.
Kenny Mac and McLean became good friends and on numerous occasions Mac would act as McLean's boxing manager in later bouts. McLean would then go on to become the best-known bare knuckle street fighter that Britain had ever seen.
Personal life
When he was nineteen years old, McLean met his future wife, Val, and a year later they were married. The couple had two children, a boy and a girl, named Jamie and Kelly. McLean described them as his "rock", and what kept him from going over the edge in his fights, and also what made him see sense and turn his back on a life of crime.
Unlicensed boxing
McLean could not enter licensed boxing due to his unpredictable temper, his violent reputation and criminal record; he therefore entered the murky world of unlicensed boxing (which despite being legal, was not sanctioned by the British Boxing Board of Control) and quickly became one of the biggest names in that field. When Frank Warren formed the National Boxing Council in the 1970s, it allowed the toughest underground fighters in Britain to legally go head to head. For the first time, the aggression and passion of the underground boxing world was now being channelled through a licensed outlet. The results were explosive. Irish and gypsy boxing champions met the hardest brawlers from the London gangland scenes for the first time.
Ronnie Kray referred to McLean as “the best fighter I have ever seen”.
McLean, who in his prime was six foot two inches tall and weighed over twenty stone, boasted that he could beat anybody, in either a legitimate match of boxing or in an unlicensed match without gloves, and sent out challenges to all the big names of the day. Muhammed Ali was approached by an agent of McLean, but turned down a match against the Guv'nor, either because he did not wish the risk of damaging his reputation in an unlicensed match or risk any severe injury which is unlikely in a professional match. McLean also sent out an invite for a bout to Mr. T, but was turned down, as Mr. T said he was concentrating on his film and television career and did not wish to appear with facial injuries. In Charles Bronson's autobiography, Bronson claimed that McLean wouldn't fight him. However, McLean later went on record saying that he would have fought Bronson, but Bronson was in prison and the authorities would not have allowed it.
McLean's bitter fights with archrival Roy "Mean Machine" Shaw, a former patient of Broadmoor Hospital, were described by critics as among the bloodiest of the century. McLean lost to Shaw once, on points, and McLean justified it by saying his gloves were doctored making them less maneuverable. McLean beat Shaw in a rematch, and Shaw demanded a "best out of three", which McLean enthusiastically accepted. 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.
Lenny McLean was not invincible, however, and had his losses like any boxer. McLean 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 Fields (neither knockout losses are mentioned in his autobiography) and beaten on points by Kevin Paddock, although McLean always maintained that he never lost a fight "on the cobbles", or outside the ring.
Despite these defeats, McLean claims to have fought in almost four thousand bare knuckle fights over three decades, and only lost a small number of these. This led many to give McLean the unofficial title of Heavyweight Champion of the World in unlicensed boxing. McLean's fame even spread "across the pond", gaining him notoriety in the United States. At one time McLean was flown over to New York City to fight in a high-profile, multi-million pound illicit match allegedly organised by the Mafia. McLean's opponent, John McCormack, said to be the hardest man in New York, lasted three minutes. Sylvester Stallone, Gene Hackman and Christopher Reeve were all in the crowd; Stallone referred to McLean as "the real Rocky". Mickey Rourke was another well-wisher, although not present at the fight, but watched a live recording of the fight.
Unlicenced fight record
This record is incomplete and charts mostly McLean's losses. Note that bareknuckle boxing matches, due to their very nature, tend to last much shorter than ordinary licenced boxing matches, and often result in a knockout in the first round.
Other professions
Another profession McLean excelled at was that of a bouncer. With his growing fame he was soon also known as "The King of Bouncers" around many of the clubs and pubs in London, often basing himself at The Hippodrome in Leicester Square, one of the largest nightclubs in the capital, and where McLean eventually ran the door.
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, known commonly as the "most legitimate" of the three brothers.
McLean was also described as a "fixer" and a "minder" (or bodyguard) for celebrities and criminal figures alike, including Mike Reid, Freddie Starr and the casts of television shows such as EastEnders and The Bill (one such unusual client was Boy George, who Mclean described as "not my cup of tea but a thoroughly nice bloke".)
At numerous times McLean's name was reputedly put up see that criminal dealings would go over smoothly, or to scare away members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Mafia, according to McLean himself in his autobiography.
Attempts on McLean's life
Being the best-known figure in the world of unlicensed boxing produced many fans as well as enemies, for McLean. Supporters of rivals, and also people who had lost money betting on McLean's opponents, became staunch enemies. McLean also made enemies from years of ejecting people from pubs and clubs. He suffered two bullet wounds from separate attacks, as well as being stabbed on two different occasions, on both of which he was attacked from behind. McLean survived all attempts on his life.
McLean later caught up with one of his assailants, a drug addict known as Billy Quinn, who attempted to shoot McLean on his own doorstep with his children in the house. Quinn was on the undercard along with "Man Mountain York", whom McLean was fighting. McLean heard of this and burst into the dressing room; when Quinn begged for mercy, McLean shook Quinn's hand a symbol of it being over, but berated Quinn for using a weapon instead of his fists, and said he didn't want to see Quinn again. He didn't. Quinn was "taking liberties all over the place" and had made numerous enemies of his own. A year later he was found dead with a bullet in his head.
1992 court case
In 1992, McLean was working as the head doorman at the The Hippodrome in London's Leicester Square, one of the largest nightclubs in the capital, when he ejected a man named Gary Humphries who was reportedly on drugs, streaking through the nightclub and harassing young 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. McLean immediately protested at his innocence and that the police had a grudge they were trying to satisfy. The charge was later reduced to manslaughter, of which McLean 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 resorted to forcefully restraining him and putting him in a stranglehold. Professor Gresham, a pathologist who had worked on many of the world's high-profile murder cases, gave evidence. Gresham claimed it was the neck injuries that caused the death of Mr Humphries, and the neck injuries were most likely caused by the stranglehold given to him by the police.
However, it was determined that McLean had given Humphries the broken jaw, and McLean served an 18 month prison sentence for grievous bodily harm.
Acting career
McLean was featured prominently in a television documentary on nightclub security staff, entitled Bouncers. He slowly entered the arena of acting after being introduced to a good agent by two long-term friends he had in show business, Mike Reid 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 on from there to small roles in films such as a police chief in the The Fifth Element, and his most acclaimed role in Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, playing the part of 'Barry The Baptist'.
Death
It was during the filming of Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels that McLean was struck ill by what was believed to be the flu. However, upon examination it was found he was suffering from lung cancer which had spread to his brain. He died shortly afterward, on 28 July, 1998, in Bexley, Greater London,[1] just 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.
Books
Lenny McLean's biography, written in McLean's own words with Peter Gerrard and titled simply The Guv'nor, was published shortly before his death. It immediately took the number one slot on the bestseller's list. Since his 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 about her life with McLean. Another book about McLean is in print from her as well, called The Guv'nor Through The Eyes Of Others.
Lenny McLean film
In his autobiography The Guv'nor, McLean spoke at length regarding how various film studios had expressed an interest in making a production based on his life and career in unlicensed boxing. McLean claimed that he would have preferred Craig Fairbrass to portray him as he had known the actor for some time; Fairbrass was a nephew of the Dixons, who were well known in the East of London and were long-time friends of McLean. More importantly, McLean considered Fairbrass to have an appearance similar to that of himself as a younger man. Fairbrass showed a keen and continuing interest in the role. Before his death, McLean made it a wish of his to get the pre-production underway, and even travelled to Hollywood, California, to discuss the matter with film studio execs, yet McLean pulled out when they claimed they wanted Sylvester Stallone for the part. Meanwhile, British rugby star Lawrence Dallaglio, actor Ray Winstone and pop star Phil Collins also showed interest in the role. However, the project hit numerous funding problems. One film promoter who took over a million pounds from McLean disappeared and was later found to have been a conman. The project 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 never come to fruition.[2]
References
- Gerrard, Peter (1998). The Guv'nor. John Blake Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1857825705.