Lenny McLean
| Lenny McLean | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Leonard John McLean 9 April 1949 Hoxton, London, England, UK |
| Died | 28 July 1998 (aged 49) Bexley, London, England, UK |
| Other names | The Guv'nor |
| Occupation | Actor, author, bouncer, boxer |
| Years active | 1970s–1998 |
| Website | http://web.archive.org/web/20060402201018/http://lennymclean.co.uk:80/ |
Leonard John "Lenny" McLean (9 April 1949 – 28 July 1998), also known as "The Guv'nor," was an English Boxer, 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 East End of London 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 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:
Lenny McLean was born into a large working-class family in Hoxton 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 four 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.
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