Ken_Richmond
Kenneth Richmond
English wrestler (1926–2006)
Kenneth Alan Richmond (10 July 1926 – 3 August 2006) was an English heavyweight wrestler.
Richmond was born in London. His father abandoned the family when Richmond was 3. Before he got into freestyle wrestling, he was a whale ship crewman.
At 6'5" and 265 lbs, he won a bronze medal at the 1952 Olympics, as well as a bronze medal at the 1950 British Empire Games, and a gold medal at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. He stayed fit enough into his later years to win medals for rollerblading and windsurfing in his 60s.[citation needed]
Though he appeared as the wrestler Nikolas in Jules Dassin's film noir, Night and the City (1950),[1] Richmond was perhaps most recognisable as the shirtless gongman banging the enormous gong preceding the opening credits for films produced or distributed by the Rank Organisation. 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 stage prop and he never actually struck it with any force, joking "If you hit that gong, you would have gone straight through."[2]
He was a Jehovah's Witness for most of his life, being jailed as a conscientious objector during World War II. In later life, he was a volunteer minister for the organisation.[2] He died at age 80 in his home in Christchurch. (Richmond’s wife, Valentina, died in 1996).[citation needed]