- Born
- Died
- Nickname
- Biffo
- Height6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
- John Bindon was well-known in the 1960s and 1970s as an actor who specialised in playing violent thugs. Off-screen, he was notorious for his violent temper and his habit of provoking fights in pubs for no other reason than to prove what a "hard man" he was. He was a gangster who was an associate of the Krays and the Richardsons. He ran a protection racket and worked as a drug dealer in the West London district of Fulham. He was also a friend of Princess Margaret whom he met on the Caribbean island of Mustique. Following the death of a fellow gangster, Johnny Darke, in November 1978 at a club in Fulham, he was charged with murder. He was acquitted of all charges at the Old Bailey but his notoriety put an end to his acting career and he drifted into obscurity. He died of AIDS in October 1993.- IMDb Mini Biography By: anon
- Born in London during the second world war, Bindon grew up on a Fulham housing estate and later endured many spells in Young Offender Institutions for theft. He was spotted by the director Ken Loach in a London pub and Loach (who was renowned for working with "unknowns") cast him in the gritty sixties drama Poor Cow (1967) which was about a London villain with a penchant for domestic violence. This was a classic case of life imitating art as he served several prison sentences during his life.
He was mainly cast as a thug, a heavy and a villain in most roles and was earning £20,000 a year in the early 1970s. He was also thought to be running protection rackets around the pubs and clubs of Fulham and Chelsea which earned him a further £10,000 a year.
Being notoriously difficult to work with (he was thought to spoil scenes on purpose so he would end up being paid overtime) he drifted into virtual obscurity as the 1970s ended. After he was tried (and found not guilty) for the murder of South London gangster Johnny Darke in 1978 he became unemployable and was seldom seen on screens again. He was made bankrupt twice and after years of sexual promiscuity and drug abuse, Bindon died alone of AIDS at his tiny Belgravia flat in 1993. He had celebrated his 50th birthday some days before.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Ryan Gough ryancgough@aol.com
- His girlfriend for many years was model/actress Vicki Hodge, the daughter of Sir John Rowland Hodge, 2nd Baronet of Chipstead, Kent and his second wife Joan.
- In 1968 received the Queen's award for bravery from the police after diving from Putney Bridge to save the life of a man drowning in the Thames. The police were unaware that he had pushed the man in the river himself, and only dove in on their arrival.
- Until the Johnny Darke murder trial, Bindon cultivated the persona of popular thug made good. Notwithstanding his undisciplined approach to acting, he could have sustained a career of sorts in films for many years. His earlier brushes with the law had already endeared him to solicitors and when he started to make a name for himself in films and TV, he was invited to play Rugby Union for the Law Society, a team that prided itself on the diversity of its selection process. Bindon became something of a regular: several barristers scrummed down with him and he swiftly acquired the sobriquet "Biffo". Not a natural ball player "Biffo" was more likely to adapt his hand/eye not to mention foot and head/eye co-ordination to "off the ball" incidents, thus softening up the opposition. This style of play did not meet with universal approval although one team mate who is now a Circuit Judge still talks guardedly of him with wry affection. Bindon's inadvertent legacy to the Criminal Law is the case of Galbraith, the actual name of one of his less fortunate co-defendants in the Johnny Darke trial. Galbraith's legal team thought that the case against their client was too weak to be left to the jury. The trial judge and jury disagreed. So did the Court of Appeal. The appeal Court laid down some guidelines and thereafter, as every law student knows, a Court will be required to apply the Galbraith test in any borderline Prosecution where the defence submit that the case should be withdrawn from the jury. Had Bindon been convicted, this might well have been known as the Bindon test!
- Was proud of his notorious party trick involving five half-pint beer glasses hanging from his person.
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