Mike (channeling Lenny McLean)
Seldon,
“I look what I am, a hard bastard!“
The photograph above? That’s not Lenny McLean. A damned fine impression, though. Lenny McLean was called the Guv’nor. He was a hard man in every sense of the term. He was a bare-knuckle boxer in England’s unlicensed boxing matches, and claimed to have fought in around four thousand matches. He worked as a bouncer all over London, and was generally known as the King of Bouncers. In 1992, McLean backhanded a guy who was being disruptive at the Hippodrome in London — broke the guy’s jaw, and the guy died. McLean beat the murder charge, but did eighteen months for Grievous Bodily Harm. A hard man, Lenny McLain.
He owned a pub for a while with one of the infamous Kray brothers — London’s most notorious gangsters. He was believed to be an enforcer for the Krays. McLean made a lot of enemies; he was shot on two separate occasions, and stabbed at least twice. A drug addict named Dalton tried to shoot him once — tried to shoot him in his own home, in front of his kids. Dalton was murdered about a year later — a bullet in the head. McLean said he had nothing to do with it. He was a hard man, was Lenny McLean.
McLean recorded an album of Elvis Presley songs. Lenny Sings…. The Guv’nor meets the King. He wrote an autobiography called The Guv’nor. It became a best-seller. He worked as a bodyguard for many of England’s most famous (and most notorious) figures. He was featured in a documentary film about London’s bouncers: Bounce: Behind The Velvet Rope. That film led to other acting gigs, and in 1998 McLean played Barry the Baptist in Guy Ritchie’s film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Barry the Baptist was also a hard man.
While filming Lock, Stock, McLean was diagnosed with lung cancer. It metastasized to his brain and McLain died shortly before the film was released. He was 49 years old. Lenny McLain was a hard man.
This is not Lenny McLain. This is Seldon Scott’s brother. I don’t know if he’s a hard man. But he takes a hard photo.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
