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Jack McVitie
Jack Dennis McVitie (19 April 1932 – 29 October 1967), best known as Jack the Hat, was an English criminal from London during the 1950s and 1960s. He is posthumously famous for triggering the imprisonment and downfall of the Kray twins. He had acted as an enforcer and hitman with links to The Firm, and was murdered by Reggie Kray in 1967. Criminal history McVitie's first criminal conviction was in October 1946, when he was convicted for stealing a watch and cigarettes at Buntingford Juvenile Court . Life McVitie married Marie Marney in Surrey in 1950. He fathered one son named Tony. The nickname 'the Hat' is said to be because of a trilby hat that he wore to cover up his hair loss. A known drug trafficker by the 1960s, he had been an associate of the Kray twins for some time and, although never a permanent member of ''The Firm'', was regularly employed to commit various crimes on their behalf. In 1967, Ronnie Kray paid McVitie £500 in advance to kill ex-friend and busines ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battersea
Battersea is a large district in southwest London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and also extends along the south bank of the Thames Tideway. It includes the Battersea Park. History Battersea is mentioned in the few surviving Anglo-Saxon geographical accounts as and later . As with many former parishes beside tidal flood plains the lowest land was reclaimed for agriculture by draining marshland and building culverts for streams. By the side of this was the River Heathwall, Heathwall tide mill in the north-east with a very long mill pond regularly draining and filling to the south. Battersea () appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 in Surrey within the Hundred (county division), hundred of Hundred_of_Brixton, Brixton () as a vast manor held by St Peter's Abbey, Westminster. Its ''Domesday'' assets were: 18 hide (unit), hides and 17 ploughlands of cultivated land; 7 gristmill, mills worth £42 9s 8d per year, of m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs, 32 boroughs. Its name derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had its main public entrance on the Westminster street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became the public entrance, and over time "Scotland Yard" came to be used not only as the common name of the headquarters building, but also as a metonym for the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) itself and police officers, especially detectives, who serve in it. ''The New York Times'' wrote in 1964 that, just as Wall Street gave its name to New York's financial district, Scotland Yard became the name for police activity in London. The force moved from Great Scotland Yard in 1890, to a newly completed building on the Victoria Embankment, and the name "New Scotland Yard" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Spruell
Sam Spruell (born 1 January 1977, in Southwark, London) is a British actor. Early life and education Spruell studied at Hull University before turning to acting. His mother is actress Linda Broughton. Career Theatre He made his stage debut with the Royal National Theatre. He has appeared in ''The Caretaker'' (at Trafalgar Studios); ''Pornography'' (Tricycle); '' The Alchemist'' and '' The Life of Galileo'' (the National); ''King Lear'' (Sheffield Crucible); ''Othello'' ( Royal Exchange); ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', '' They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'', and '' Pippin'', (Bloomsbury Theatre); and elsewhere. Cinema Spruell's first screen appearance came in Kathryn Bigelow's submarine drama '' K-19: The Widowmaker'' in 2002. His film credits include '' To Kill a King'' (2003); '' London to Brighton'' (2006); '' Elizabeth: The Golden Age'' (2007); ''The Hurt Locker'' (2008); '' Defiance'' (2008); and others. He played hit man Jack "The Hat" McVitie in the 2015 film ''Legend'', a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legend (2015 Film)
''Legend'' is a 2015 biographical drama film written and directed by Brian Helgeland, adapted from John Pearson's book '' The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins''. The film follows the Kray twins' career and relationship together through their convictions for murder and sentencing to life imprisonment in 1969. Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, David Thewlis and Christopher Eccleston star with Colin Morgan, Chazz Palminteri, Paul Bettany, Tara Fitzgerald, Taron Egerton, and the singer Duffy in supporting roles. Plot In the 1960s, Reggie Kray is a former boxer who has become an important part of the criminal underground in London. His twin brother Ron is locked in a psychiatric hospital and being treated for paranoid schizophrenia. Reggie uses threats to obtain the premature release of his brother. The twins unite their efforts to control a large part of London's criminal underworld, made easier when the head of the south London Richardson Gang ( the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Bell (actor)
Thomas George Bell (2 August 1933 – 4 October 2006) was an English actor on stage, film and television. He often played "menacing or seedy roles, perhaps most memorably playing sexist Detective Sergeant Bill Otley, antagonist to Helen Mirren's DCI Jane Tennison in ''Prime Suspect''. Early life Bell was born on 2 August 1933, in Liverpool, Lancashire. His family was large, and he had little contact with his father, a merchant seaman. Evacuated as a child during the Second World War, he lived with three different families in Morecambe, Lancashire. In 1948, at age 15, Bell first acted in school plays. His younger brother Keith also became an actor. On leaving school he trained under Esme Church at the Bradford Civic Theatre; fellow pupils included Billie Whitelaw and Robert Stephens. He later worked in repertory in Liverpool and Dublin. Career Michael Coveney described Bell as a "naturally gifted and unusually reserved leading actor", with a "quiet, mesmeric brand of acting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gary Kemp
Gary James Kemp (born 16 October 1959) is an English songwriter, musician and actor, best known as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist, and principal songwriter for the new wave band Spandau Ballet. Kemp wrote the lyrics and music for all 23 of Spandau Ballet's hit singles, including "To Cut a Long Story Short", "True", "Gold", " Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)", "Through the Barricades" and " Only When You Leave". Spandau Ballet became one of the biggest British bands of the 1980s, generating over 25 million record sales worldwide. In 2012, Kemp was an Ivor Novello Award winner for Outstanding Song Collection. His brother Martin Kemp plays bass guitar in the band and is also an actor. Since 2018, Kemp has also toured the US and Europe with the psychedelic rock group Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets. Early life Gary James Kemp was on born 16 October 1959, to parents Eileen and Frank Kemp in St Bartholomew's Hospital,''Martin Kemp, True: the Autobiography of M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Kemp (entertainer)
Martin John Kemp (born 10 October 1961) is an English musician and actor, best known as the bassist in the new wave band Spandau Ballet and for his role as Steve Owen in ''EastEnders''. He is the younger brother of Gary Kemp, who is also a member of Spandau Ballet and an actor. In 2012, Kemp finished third in the tenth series of ''Celebrity Big Brother'', and in 2017 he appeared as a judge on the BBC series '' Let It Shine''. Early life Kemp was born to Frank and Eileen Kemp at their house in Islington, north London, and attended Rotherfield Junior School. From the age of 7 he attended the Anna Scher Theatre drama club with his brother Gary, and appeared in many TV shows, including ''Jackanory'', ''The Tomorrow People'' and ''Dixon of Dock Green''. In his last year with Anna Scher, he won a role in an episode of the BBC television series '' The Glittering Prizes'', appearing alongside Tom Conti and Nigel Havers in 1976. Kemp grew up in north London and attended Central ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Krays (film)
''The Krays'' is a 1990 British biographical crime drama film directed by Peter Medak. The film is based on the lives and crimes of the British gangster twins Ronald and Reginald Kray, often referred to as The Krays. The film stars Billie Whitelaw, Tom Bell, and real-life brothers (although not twins) Gary and Martin Kemp, both of whom were members of the band Spandau Ballet. Plot The film explores the lives of the Kray twins from childhood to adulthood. The plot focuses on the relationship between the twins and their doting mother (Whitelaw). Ronald (Gary Kemp) is the dominant one, influencing his brother Reginald (Martin Kemp) to perform several acts of violence as they rise to power as the leaders of a powerful organised gang in 1960s London. The movie focuses on the personal life of the brothers, including Reg's marriage and then alienation from his wife, who commits suicide. The movie takes some liberties with historical facts, as it omits the police investigation of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biographical Film
A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from Docudrama, docudrama films and Historical drama, historical drama films in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a single person's life story or at least the most historically important years of their lives. Context Biopic scholars include George F. Custen of the College of Staten Island and Dennis P. Bingham of Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. Custen, in ''Bio/Pics: How Hollywood Constructed Public History'' (1992), regards the genre as having died with the Studio system, Hollywood studio era, and in particular, Darryl F. Zanuck. On the other hand, Bingham's 2010 study ''Whose Lives Are They Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre'' shows how it perpetuates as a codified genre using many of the same tropes used in the studio era that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accessory (legal Term)
An accessory is a person who assists, but does not actually participate, in the commission of a crime. The distinction between an accessory and a principal (criminal law), principal is a question of fact and degree: *The principal is the one whose acts or Omission (criminal law), omissions, accompanied by the relevant ''mens rea'' (Latin for "guilty mind"), are the most immediate cause of the ''actus reus'' (Latin for "guilty act"). *If two or more people are directly responsible for the ''actus reus'', they can be charged as joint principals . The test to distinguish a joint principal from an accessory is whether the defendant independently contributed to causing the ''actus reus'' rather than merely giving generalised and/or limited help and encouragement. Elements In some jurisdictions, an accessory is distinguished from an accomplice, who normally is present at the crime and participates in some way. An accessory must generally have knowledge that a crime is being committed, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlie Kray
Charles James Kray (9 July 1927 – 4 April 2000) was an English professional boxer and convicted criminal. He was the elder brother of Ronnie and Reggie Kray. Early life Charles James Kray was born at 26 Gorsuch Street, Hoxton on 9 July 1927, to Charles David Kray (1907–1983), a wardrobe dealer, and Violet Annie Lee (1909–1982). His father was of Irish descent and his mother was Romani. When Kray was six, his mother had identical twins, Ronnie and Reggie Kray, with Reggie born 10 minutes before Ronnie. His sister, Violet (1929) died in infancy. In 1932, the family moved to Stene Street, near Kingsland Road, Hackney. The family later moved to 178 Vallance Road in Bethnal Green. Kray attended Laburnum Street School in Haggerston, where he was selected for the football team. Before the war, Kray worked for Lloyd's of London as a messenger boy in the city, earning around 18 shillings a week. Boxing career Young Charlie was brought up on stories about fighting and bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
