Cliff twemlow
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Cliff Twemlow (16 October 1933 - 5 May 1993) was a British actor, nightclub bouncer, horror paperback writer and library music composer.
Twemlow was born in Hulme, Manchester, the son of a Merchant Seaman. He became a nightclub bouncer, or “Tuxedo Warrior”, in 1950s Morecambe before this occupation would take him to Scotland and back to Manchester. Hoping to diversify Twemlow worked as an extra on the television series Coronation Street and attempted to break into the music industry by composing library music under the pen name Peter Reno. The latter was a hugely successful venture, with Twemlow penning more than two thousand compositions within the space of a few years. Most of his Peter Reno material was written for the company DeWolfe and used in television (Crown Court, Public Eye, Rutland Weekend Television, Quennie’s Castle, The Sweeney) and adverts. One of his songs “Cause I’m a Man”, written in 1967, later became famous when it was used in the film Dawn of the Dead. Unfortunately problems within the music industry, bad business deals, legal hassles and a divorce meant this success was short lived and he was eventually declared bankrupt.
Twemlow returned to work as a nightclub bouncer in the mid-seventies, in the early eighties he wrote his autobiography “The Tuxedo Warrior”, which documented his career in the music industry and as a bouncer. In the books final chapter Twemlow is hospitalized after a fight in a nightclub and his family ask him to retire or seek an alternative lifestyle. He refuses and returns to being a Tuxedo Warrior, the book closes with the statement “it is far better to be a resident on the brink of hell, than spend a lifetime in a relentless pursuit of a mythical heaven”. Tuxedo Warrior was turned into a film in 1982, however the film chooses to ignore all aspects of Cliff’s life and instead merely uses him as a character in a fictional narrative. In the film Cliff (John Wyman) is an ex-bouncer from Manchester who has opened a bar in South Africa and becomes involved in diamond smuggling. Confusingly the real Twemlow appears in the film as supporting character ‘Chaser’. The only other character in the film taken from the book, in real life Chaser was an American bouncer who had beaten Cliff up in 1950’s Morecambe.
Encouraged by the success of the Tuxedo Warrior book Twemlow would go onto write two fiction books for the pulp horror market The Beast of Kane (1983) and The Pike (1982). The Beast of Kane, concerning a satanic elkhound, was submitted as a possible film project for Hammer Film Productions but was rejected. Twemlow then tried to make a film of The Pike, starring Joan Collins, but the budget could not be raised despite Collins’ star power and Twemlow and Collins promoting the film on the BBC’s Look North program.
In 1983 Twemlow acted in/wrote and composed the music for “GBH”, one of the earliest british films to be shot on videotape. Considered more true to Twemlow’s life than the Tuxedo Warrior film , GBH features him as Steve Donovan aka “The Mancunian”, a world weary nightclub bouncer hired to protect a club from a London gang. The film’s well remembered video cover features a blood splattered Twemlow holding an axe with the tag line “more brutal than The Long Good Friday”. GBH lead to Twemlow appearing in more shot on video features, mostly self-financed and filmed in Manchester, that continued until his death from a heart attack in 1993.
Contents |
[edit] Acting Roles
- Coronation Street (mid-1960s) ... Extra
- Tuxedo Warrior (1982) ... Chaser
- GBH (1983) ... Donovan
- Harrising Moments (1983, uncompleted)
- The Ibiza Connection (1984) ... Wolf Svenson
- Mason’s War (1984)
- The Blind Side of God (1987) ... Johnny Zero
- Assassinator (1988) ... Devlin
- Moonstalker (1988)
- Tokyo Sunrise (1988, uncompleted) ... Johnny Zero
- The Eye of Satan (1989) ... Kane
- GBH2 Lethal Impact (1991) ... Steve Donovan
- Bad Weekend (1991) ... Hawk
- Firestar First Contact (1991) ... John Trooper
[edit] discography
[edit] Peter Reno Albums
- “Z-Patrol” (1967 DeWolfe; with Reg Tilsley)
- “For the Young” (19?? DeWolfe: with John Reids)
- “Big City Story” (1968, DeWolfe)
- “Inherit the Wind” (1968, DeWolfe)
- “Colours” (1969, DeWolfe)
- “TV Suite Vol 2” (DeWolfe 1970, with Johnny Hawksworth)
- “Sunspots” (DeWolfe, 1971 with Johnny Hawksworth)
- “Sit Back” (Hudson music 1971)
- “Illinois” (DeWolfe 1971)
- “Alibi” (DeWolfe 1971 with Johnny Hawksworth)
- “Restless Woman” (DeWolfe 1971,
- “Times Two” (DeWolfe 1971, with Keith Papworth)
- “Native Rhymes” (DeWolfe 1972)
- “City Scene” (DeWolfe 1972 with Keith Papworth and Jack Trombey)
- “Junction” (DeWolfe 1973)
- “Syndrome” (DeWolfe 1973 with Reg Tilsley)
[edit] External links
- Cliff Twemlow at the Internet Movie Database
- early eighties articles about Twemlow and the GBH film
- british video cover of GBH
- Steve Powell's Cliff Twemlow page
- article about the unmade film of 'The Pike'
- article about the second unmade film of 'The Pike'
[edit] References
- Twemlow, Cliff 1981. The Tuxedo Warrior: Tales of a Mancunian Bouncer City Major Press
