Alternative Film Guide

Brief Obit: 6-foot-5 wrestler Ken Richmond, 80, the fourth and last bulky man striking the gong before the opening credits of the British Rank Studio films, died of a heart attack on Aug. 3 at his home in Christchurch, on England’s south coast.

In 1954, Richmond was paid £100 (approximately US$280 at the time) to bare his chest and take a slow swing at a gong about 5 feet across. (Rank’s first gong-striker was bombardier Billy Wells, who struck the gong three times in 1935. The synchronized sound heard by audiences, however, was provided by percussionist James Blades striking a 30-inch Chinese tam-tam.)

Richmond was born in London on July 10, 1926. An amateur heavyweight wrestler, he appeared as an extra in British films, and had a small role in Jules Dassin’s film noir Night and the City (1950), in which Richmond, hardly cast against type, played a wrestler.

In 1952, the 265-pound athlete won a bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Helsinki, and two years later, he won a gold medal at the 1954 Commonwealth Games in Vancouver.

During World War II, Richmond, a Jehovah’s Witness, was jailed as a conscientious objector. In later years, he became a door-to-door missionary for his church.

For his role as Rank’s last gong-striker, he was interviewed for Tom Gutteridge’s 1985 British TV documentary The Golden Gong, an exploration of Rank’s impact on the British film industry. The Rank Studios had closed in 1980.

And by the way, Rank’s gong never really rang. It was made of papier-maché.

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