Kenneth Richmond

Who was Kenneth Richmond?

Kenneth "Ken" Alan Richmond was an English wrestler. He won a bronze medal at the 1952 Olympics and was also a whale ship crewman before he got into the gong business. He stayed fit enough into old age to win medals for rollerblading and windsurfing in his 60s.

Though he made a memorable appearance as the wrestler Nikolas in Jules Dassin's Night and the City, Richmond was most recognizable as the shirtless gongman banging the enormous gong preceding the opening credits for J. Arthur Rank's famed British productions of the Rank Organisation.

He died at age 80 in his home in Christchurch, England. According to the BBC, before he died, he revealed to friends a closely guarded secret that the gong was a papier-mâché stage prop.