10 Greats From The Golden Age Of British Wrestling
3. Les Kellett
Famed for his Chaplinesque clowning and intense physicality, Les Kellett was one of the strongest draws in British wrestling for many years. But he was also famously one of its very toughest and most eccentric personalities.
Out of character, Kellett was far from jocular. A genuine hard man who enjoyed fighting outside the ring as much as within it, other wrestlers were wary of his unpredictable nature and penchant for both receiving and inflicting pain. Fans who approached him in hopes of meeting the amiable clown they thought they knew were often in for a nasty surprise - referee Joe D'Orazio remembered how he treated an autograph-hunter who once entered the dressing-room unannounced, holding the man's head to an electric fire until he screamed and Kellett's own arm was burned.
Aside from wrestling, the reclusive Kellett farmed pigs and owned and ran a transport cafe. Perhaps the most common story told of him is one repeated by many wrestlers who came up against him over the course of his career. On letting him know they had hold of a finger or even an arm and he should consider submitting, his response was invariably simple:
"Break it."