Kenneth Richmond

Kenneth Richmond

Personal information
Birth name	Kenneth Alan Richmond
Born	10 July 1926 London, England
Died	3 August 2006(2006-08-03) (aged 80) Christchurch, Dorset, England
Medal record Men's freestyle wrestling Representing  Great Britain Olympic Games 1952 Helsinki Heavyweight Representing  England British Empire (and Commonwealth) Games 1954 Vancouver Heavyweight 1950 Auckland Heavyweight

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.^[3] (Richmond’s wife, Valentina, died in 1996).^{[citation needed]}

• London Daily Mirror, 12 August 2006
• BBC Radio 4 Last Word, 18 August 2006
• Hevesi, Dennis (14 August 2006). "MOVIES: Ken Richmond, 80, Gong-Striker Familiar to Filmgoers, Dies". The New York Times.

• Kenneth Alan Richmond at the International Olympic Committee
• Ken Richmond at IMDb
• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Ken Richmond". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020.