Kenneth Richmond

Medal record
Men's Freestyle wrestling
Competitor for  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Bronze 1952 Helsinki Heavyweight
Competitor for  England
British Empire (and Commonwealth) Games
Gold 1954 Vancouver Heavyweight
Bronze 1950 Auckland Heavyweight

Kenneth "Ken" Alan Richmond (10 July 1926 – 3 August 2006) was an English wrestler. He won a bronze medal at the 1952 Olympics and was also a whale ship crewman before he got into the gong business. He stayed fit enough into old age to win medals for rollerblading and windsurfing in his 60s.

Though he made a memorable appearance as the wrestler Nikolas in Jules Dassin's Night and the City, Richmond was most recognizable as the shirtless gongman banging the enormous gong preceding the opening credits for J. Arthur Rank's famed British productions of the Rank Organisation (movies such as Great Expectations, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, and Kind Hearts and Coronets).

He died at age 80 in his home in Christchurch, England. According to the BBC, before he died, he revealed to friends a closely guarded secret that the gong was a papier-mâché stage prop.

Sources

External links