Kenneth Alan "Ken" Richmond (10 July 1926 – 3 August 2006) was an English heavyweight

wrestler Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat sport ...

. Richmond was born in London. His father abandoned the family when Richmond was 3. Before he got into

freestyle wrestling Freestyle wrestling is a style of wrestling originated from Great Britain and the United States. Along with Greco-Roman, it is one of the two styles of wrestling contested in the Olympic Games. American high school and men's college wrestling ...

, he was a whale ship crewman. At 6'5" and 265 lbs, he won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

at the 1952 Olympics, as well as a bronze medal at the

1950 British Empire Games The 1950 British Empire Games was the fourth staging of what is now called the Commonwealth Games. It was held in Auckland, New Zealand between 4 and 11 February 1950, after a 12-year gap from the third edition of the games. The main venue was ...

, and a gold medal at the

1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fi ...

. He stayed fit enough into his later years to win medals for

rollerblading Inline skating is a multi-disciplinary sport and can refer to a number of activities practiced using inline skates. Inline skates typically have two to five polyurethane wheels depending on the style of practice, arranged in a single line by a ...

and

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing ga ...

in his 60s. Though he appeared as the wrestler Nikolas in

Jules Dassin Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, whe ...

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

, ''

Night and the City ''Night and the City'' is a 1950 film noir directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney and Googie Withers. It is based on the Night and the City (novel), novel of the same name by Gerald Kersh. Shot on location in Londo ...

'' (1950),Schager, Nick.
''Slant Magazine,'' DVD review of ''Night and the City,'' 16 February 2005. Last accessed: 3 December 2009. Richmond was perhaps most recognisable as the shirtless

gongman The Gongman (also known as the "man-with-the-gong") is a company trademark for the J. Arthur Rank Organisation. It was used as the introduction to all Rank films, many of which were shot at their Pinewood Studios, and included those Rank distrib ...

banging the enormous gong preceding the opening credits for films produced or distributed by the

Rank Organisation The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribu ...

. He was the fourth - and last - actor to take the job. According to the BBC, he had revealed to friends that the gong seen in the Rank Organisation's opening never rang, as it was a

papier-mâché upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti upright=1.3, Papier-mâché Catrinas, traditional figures for day of the dead celebrations in Mexico Papier-mâché (, ; , literally "chewed paper") is a composite material consisting of p ...

stage prop and he never actually struck it with any force, joking "If you hit that gong, you would have gone straight through."Hevesi He was a

Jehovah's Witness Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ev ...

for most of his life, being jailed as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In later life, he was a volunteer minister for the organisation.Hevesi He died at age 80 in his home in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

. (Richmond’s wife, Valentina, died in 1996).

Filmography

References

Bibliography

* London ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...

'', 12 August 2006
BBC Radio 4 ''Last Word''
18 August 2006 *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Richmond, Kenneth 1926 births 2006 deaths Sportspeople from London British conscientious objectors Olympic wrestlers of Great Britain Wrestlers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 1956 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 1960 Summer Olympics British male sport wrestlers Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Wrestlers at the 1950 British Empire Games Wrestlers at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Wrestlers at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Olympic medalists in wrestling Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games medallists in wrestling British people in whaling Jehovah's Witnesses