Lenny Mclean, The Guv'nor, in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Lenny Mclean, aka The Guv'nor, was an all round bad-ass for years before he played a badass in the top notch Guy Ritchie film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrel.  He was referred to by man as "the hardest man in Britain".  Some say the number of fights he was in ranges somwhere in the area between two and three thousand.  


One of the big influences on Lenny's hardened personality was his great uncle Jimmy Sparks, a feared local gangster.  Lenny's father died when he was only six and the man his mother remarried was an abusive alcoholic.  After the new man had dealt an especially bad beating to Lenny's younger brother Sparks nearly beat the man to death and swore to kill him if anymore violence occured towards the boys.  Lenny admired him for this and got into street fighting and running errands for local criminals.  After serving 18 months for petty crimes in his teens he moved on to his adult life as a professional bad-ass.  On a softer note Lenny married his wife Val at age 20 and had two kids.  He believed his family to be his rock and felt they kept him from committing his life solely to crime.


He participated in a few TV shows in Britain and some small movie parts but the Guv'nor's only major film was Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.  Released August 1998 in the UK and March 1999 in Canada it received an 8.2 on IMDB and was the first in a string of excellent Guy Ritchie movies that fall somewhere between a comedy, a drama and a badass action flick!  Those movies include Snatch (2000), Revolver (2005), RocknRolla (2008) and even the most recent Sherlock Holmes (2009).  This badass movie four working class blokes that pool there money to enter their card shark friend into a high stakes game.  As can be expected this does not go as planned the boys end up not only losing there money but owing the gangster/porn king Hatchet Harry.  The movie plays out in what is now a Guy Ritchie fashion with all the stories ending up intertwined with lots of comedy and violence.  Hatchet Harry has two major henchmen, one is Big Chris played by Vinnie Jones and the other is Barry the Baptist played by Lenny Mclean.


Lenny Mclean was a bad-ass fighter before he was in movie.  He boxed professionally and underground as well as participated in bare knuckle boxing fights.  Check out this badass clip where the Guv'nor beats the hell out of a guy after he cheap shots him before the fight in this unlicensed boxing match:

Lenny would have been around thirty-seven years old in this fight.  Looks like he is starting off slow with his legs but once he grabs the guys head with his left he lets off a flurry of rights and the ref's can't even take him away from this guy who is not even moving by the end!


His first unlicensed boxing match occured by chance when his car broke down and he went to get a part from a local Gypsy used car salesmen (not my idea of reputable dealer).  The new part failed (of course) and when Lenny returned to get his dough back the man offered him a new car if he were to fight in that afternoon's unlicensed boxing match.  His opponent was almost seven feet tall and weighed 127 kg and lasted less than a minute in the ring against Lenny.


Here is a list of some of his official fights, all of which he won:

1    Roy Shaw                  Cinatra’s Nightclub, Croyden           23^rd May                   1977         

2    Roy Shaw                  Cinatra’s Nightclub, Croyden           10th  April                 1978               

3    Solli Francis              Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park                                         1978

4    Roy Shaw                  Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park      11th  September        1978

5    Cliff Fields                 Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park       4th  December          1978

6    Cliff Fields                 Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park      12th  February           1979

7    Steve Richards           Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park      29^th  November        1979

8   Johnny Wauldron       The Cats Whiskers in Streatham                                        198?

9   Johnny Wauldron       Ilford Palais, Essex                                                            198?

10  Kevin Paddock                                                                                                  198?

11   Johnny Clarke           Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park                                       1982

12  Ron Redrupp                                                                                                      19??

13  Joe Brown

14  Bradshaw                 Yorkshire Grey                                  15th  April                 1986

15  York                          Woodford  Green, Essex                   7th  Septemeber      1986

The Guv'nor was also a bad ass bouncer known around night clubs and pubs in London.  In 1992 he was arrested for the murder of Gary Humphries.  At that time the Guv'nor was the head doorman of The Hippodrome in London's Leicester Square and ejected Mr. Humphries from the club for being on drugs and harassing women.  Humphries died later that night and was found to have a broken jaw bone and neck injuries.



On the set of Lock Stock,Lenny got what he thought to be the flu.  It was later found to be lung cancer which had metastasized to his brain.  He died a few weeks before the film was released.  Guy Ritchie changed some of the advertisements to feature Lenny to pay homage to this all round bad ass.


Lenny Mclean's character was a bad ass in the movie but he didn't need that to make him look tough.  This guy was the real deal, a tough guy, hardened bad ass that even the baddest criminals in London didn't want to mess with.  Prisoner, actor, husband, fighter, author, bouncer, criminal, father, Guv'nor you get the highest a rank as a tried-and-true-bad-ass-mother-fucker