Tell me about actor Alan Ford, please

Somewhere along the line I seem to have picked up some… some sort of something that might wipe off on a rabbit if a bear asked the right question… about this amiable fellow Alan Ford, who did two fine Guy Ritchie films in a row.

Somewhere along the line I got the impression that the fellow has a fair amount of real-life experience as a British gangster, or that he was somehow associated with the shadowy underworld. I thought the guy had done some hard time.

But now that I seek to verify such a thing, I find only that he has a modest career, with a possible absence of about four years during the 1980s. Any “Brick Top” fans out there? What’s the deal on this entertaining fellow?

Perhaps it was a due to his damn fine acting.
If he made you think he was ‘that hard’ really, he did his job well.

In “Lock Stock”, the actor playng Barry the Baptist , Lenny McLean, was a real life street-fighting champion. Maybe you heard stories about him.

I suppose it’s possible that I confused the two. I really hate it when I’m the one spreading the BS around.