John Bindon

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John Bindon
Born	John Dennis Arthur Bindon (1943-10-04)4 October 1943 Fulham, London, England
Died	10 October 1993(1993-10-10) (aged 50) Chelsea, London, England
Resting place	Putney Vale Cemetery, London, England
Other names	Biffo, The Guv'nor, Big John
Occupation(s)	Actor and bodyguard
Years active	1966–1979
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)

John Dennis Arthur Bindon^[1][2] (4 October 1943 – 10 October 1993) was an English actor and bodyguard who had close links with the London underworld. The son of a London cab driver, Bindon was frequently in trouble as a youth for getting into fights, and spent two periods in borstal. He was spotted in a London pub by Ken Loach, who asked him to appear in his film Poor Cow (1967).

Other film and television productions followed, with Bindon sought after to play gangsters or tough police detectives. He played a violent mobster alongside Mick Jagger in Performance (1970), a London crime boss in Get Carter (1971), and a prisoner with Paul Newman in The Mackintosh Man (1973). Philip Hoare described Bindon as "the archetypal actor-villain, and an all-round 'good geezer'".^[2]

He was also known for having many socialite girlfriends,^[3] such as Christine Keeler, the former Playboy "Bunny Girl" Serena Williams, and Vicki Hodge, who had a 12-year abusive relationship with Bindon, which ended in 1981.^[2] Through Hodge, the daughter of a baronet, Bindon gained access to British aristocratic circles, which culminated with his meeting Princess Margaret in the late 1960s, at her home on Mustique in the Caribbean.^[4]

Bindon lived his hard man persona on and off screen. He was believed to be running protection rackets in west London pubs and was alleged to have connections to the Kray twins and the Richardson Gang. In the late 1970s, in addition to acting work, he provided security for actors and musicians, most notoriously for Led Zeppelin on their 1977 US tour, where he was sacked for brawling backstage.

In 1978, Bindon was tried for the murder of London gangster Johnny Darke. Bindon pleaded self-defence and was acquitted, but the case damaged his reputation, and that, coupled with being seen by directors as difficult to work with, meant his acting career declined. In the 1980s, Bindon became reclusive; he died in 1993.