Kenneth Richmond
Kenneth Alan Richmond was an English heavyweight wrestler who competed at four Olympic Games.
Biography
Richmond was born in London and grew up near Pinewood Studios.At 6'5" and 265 lbs, he competed for Great Britain at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, finishing fifth in the Greco-Roman light heavyweight category. He represented the English team at the 1950 British Empire Games in Auckland, New Zealand, where he won the bronze medal in the heavyweight category.
He won a bronze medal at the 1952 Olympics and represented the English team at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games held in Vancouver, Canada, where he won the gold medal in the heavyweight category.
He appeared at two more Olympic Games in 1956 and 1960 respectively and represented the England team at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff.
Rixhmond was an eleven-times winner of the British Wrestling Championships at light-heavyweight in 1950 and at super heavyweight in 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1960.
He stayed fit enough into his later years to win medals for rollerblading and windsurfing in his 60s.
Though he appeared as the wrestler Nikolas in Jules Dassin's film noir, Night and the City, 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."
He was a Jehovah's Witness from late 1960s.. He was jailed as a conscientious objector during World War II. In later life, he was a volunteer minister for the organisation. He died at age 80 in his home in Christchurch..