Lenny McLean

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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 cousin, the famous boxing promoter Frank Warren, who called him "a terrible bully" and questioned his unlicensed boxing record.

Adding to McLean's hard man image was his famed weightlifting ability (he once bench pressed 500 pounds). 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.

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'.

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[edit] Early life

Born in Hoxton, England, 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 debiltated by a near-fatal disease he contracted in India. McLean senior died after a heart bypass 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 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.

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, 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. He became the best-known bare knuckle street fighter that Britain had ever seen.

Another profession McLean excelled at was that of a bouncer. With his growing fame he was soon also known as "The King of Bouncers"[citation needed] 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 described as a "fixer" and a "minder" (or bodyguard) for celebrities and criminal figures alike (one such unusual client was Boy George) and at numerous times McLean's name was reputedly put up to scare away members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the mafia.[citation needed]

When he was nineteen years old, McLean met his future wife, Val, and a year later they were married. The couple had two children, Jamie and Kelly.

[edit] 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.

Being the best-known figure in the world of unlicensed boxing produced many fans as well as enemies, for McLean. 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 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, but in a notable rematch at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, London, in April 1986, McLean ended the long standing between them with a dramatic first round knockout.

Lenny 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 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 boxing matches over three decades, and only lost a small number of these.[citation needed] This led many to give McLean the unofficial title of Heavyweight Champion of the World in unlicensed boxing. 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.[citation needed] 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".[citation needed]

Ronnie Kray referred to McLean as “the best fighter I have ever seen”.[citation needed]

[edit] Unlicensed fight record

This record is incomplete and charts mostly McLean's losses.

(Date Unknown) Roy Shaw Defeated Lenny McLean by KO in round 3

April 1986 (exact date unknown) Lenny McLean defeated Roy Shaw by KO in round 1

(Date Unknown)Lenny McLean defeated John McCormack by KO (exact round not known)

[edit] 1992 court case

In 1992, McLean was working as the head doorman at 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. 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.

[edit] 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 showbusiness, Mike Reid and Freddie Starr. 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'.

[edit] 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 and brain cancer. He died shortly afterward, on 28 July 1998, 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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. Ray Winstone and Lawrence Dallaglio also showed interest in the role. However, the project hit funding problems (one film promoter who took over a million pounds from McLean disappeared and was later found to have been a conman) and the project has been in hiatus since McLean's death. WWE wrestler William Regal said in a television interview that he had been offered the role in a new move to get the film up-and-running, but this has yet to come to fruition.[1]

[edit] References

  • Gerrard, Peter (1998). The Guv'nor. John Blake Publishing Ltd. ISBN-10: 1857825705. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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