Lenny McLean
In his prime, the 6-foot-3-inch (191 cm) tall McLean weighed over 20 stone (280 lb; 130 kg) and was considered the "unofficial heavyweight champion of Great Britain".He was also known in the London nightclub scene as a bouncer, where he often managed security, including 1980s celebrity hangouts, such as Garth Crooks's Team of the Week Club, in Hounslow.[2] In his later life, McLean became an actor, and received praise for playing Barry the Baptist in Guy Ritchie's 1998 gangster comedy film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.His father, Leonard John McLean Sr., 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.However, when Lenny's infant brother Raymond was beaten brutally with a belt, McLean's great-uncle Jimmy Spinks, a local gangster, attacked Irwin, nearly killing him, and threatened to cut his throat should he ever need to return to protect the children.[10] When Frank Warren formed the National Boxing Council in the 1970s, it allowed the toughest underground fighters in Britain to compete legally.In their final bout, McLean ended the feud with a brutal first-round knockout at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, London in September 1978.McLean was also described as a "fixer" and a "minder", meaning a bodyguard, for criminals and celebrities including Mike Reid, Boy George, and the casts of television shows such as EastEnders and The Bill.According to McLean's autobiography, his name was useful for the smooth progress of various criminal dealings, and to warn off members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Mafia.[citation needed] McLean was featured prominently in a television documentary on nightclub security staff, titled Bounce: Behind The Velvet Rope.His largest and most famous role was in Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), playing the part of criminal enforcer 'Barry the Baptist'.McLean described his family as his "rock," whose existence helped him to reject a life solely devoted to crime, and for whom he maintained some self-control during his fights.One of the assailants, Barry Dalton, a former bare-knuckle fighter who ran protection rackets across London, had a falling out with McLean and confronted him with a shotgun at his home while his children were in the house.[14] In 1992, McLean was working as the head doorman at the Hippodrome in London's Leicester Square, when he ejected a man named Gary Humphries, who suffered from serious mental health problems and was reportedly on drugs, streaking through the nightclub, urinating on the floor and harassing women.Professor Gresham, a pathologist who had worked on many high-profile murder cases, gave evidence that the stranglehold applied by the police probably caused the neck injuries which led to Humphries' death.[20] The drama film My Name Is Lenny was released in 2017, featuring Australian actor Josh Helman in the title role, and Michael Bisping as Roy "Pretty Boy" Shaw.