There were many elements that were not particularly factual, though the film made for an entertaining, rather glamourised point of view, and acted as a decent enough summation. One of the most skewed stories was the shooting of George Cornell at the Beggar.
Behind the Legend: how accurate is Tom Hardy's Krays drama? Read more More murder Legend's depiction of the murder of Jack McVitie is even more questionable – changed to fit with its inaccurate contentions, first, that Reg was sane, and second, that Ron and Reg fell out permanently over Frances.
They base the film mostly on the love story between Reggie and Frances and he really did love her and she did love him. Remember she's got this older, good-looking, immaculately dressed businessman boyfriend and she's a little 18-year-old from the east end and never been up the west to a nightclub.
A former associate of the Krays, Freddie Foreman, told The Sun that while watching Hardy on screen was "uncanny" and like "seeing the twins reincarnated", the film gets the relationship between Reggie and his wife, Frances Shea, totally wrong.
And they didn't just fight other people, the twins would regularly get into vicious fights with one another! Although they operated in partnership with one another, many members of "The Firm" (the Krays' gang) attest that Reggie and Ronnie fought daily.
The KRAY Twins - LEGEND. Why did their criminal empire collapse? Real story
Who was the tougher Kray twin?
Ronnie. The Kray twins once did a boxing match with each other, with neither one wanting to back down until their mom interfered. Ronny was more aggressive, stronger, and much more 'psycho' than Reggie, and that would've given him the upperhand in a fight to KO/death.
While in prison, he was labeled insane (and later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia). Ronnie and Reggie had another brush with the law in 1965. Both brothers were arrested in connection with their efforts to shake down a Soho club owner, but they were later acquitted in this case.
Ms Flannagan revealed that the Krays particularly disliked scenes that featured their mother, who was played by Billie Whitelaw, because the film showed her swearing. Ronnie told her “they hated the film” for that reason and felt that director Peter Medak had taken creative liberties with his adaptation.
Legend is a good entertaining movie about the legendary Kray brothers even though it's more about Frances, the wife of Reggie Kray, narrating her point of view regarding the whole situation. Personally I preferred The Krays from 1990 with the Kemp brothers (from Spandau Ballet) playing the twin brothers.
Nancy's older brother Gary was handicapped from birth so 'he was my big little brother. He didn't know how to play with his toys, so I showed him. We had our own sign language. We used to get my dad to come upstairs where we played tricks on him!
The Krays in 1990. The Rise of the Krays which went straight to DVD in 2015. And Legend in 2015. Micky Fawcett has seen all three films, worked with the Krays and has written arguably the most factually accurate version of their story: Krayzy Days.
“But as they became more notorious, Ronnie became quite shameless about it. “According to Ron in the early days they had sex with each other because they were terrified about people finding out.”
Tom Cruise reportedly wasn't happy with the American cut of this movie and wouldn't talk about it for years because of it. He very much encouraged fans to go with the Director's Cut.
Starring a 22-year-old Tom Cruise (Top Gun Maverick) and 16-year-old Mia Sara (Ferris Bueller's Day Off), Legend is a beautifully filmed (if not particularly complex) allegory about the power of true love and the eternal struggle of good vs. evil.
Are the Krays from Legend real? It is adapted from John Pearson's book The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins, which deals with their career and the relationship that bound them together, and follows their gruesome career to life imprisonment in 1969.
Jack McVitie (19 April 1932 – 29 October 1967), best known as Jack the Hat, was an English criminal from London during the 1950s and 1960s. He is posthumously famous for triggering the imprisonment and downfall of the Kray twins.
Notorious gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray, better known as Ronnie and Reggie or simply 'the Krays', ran a criminal empire in East London throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The Krays were undoubtedly ruthless criminals, responsible for violence, coercion and a 2-decade-long reign of terror in the city's underworld.
Windsor wasn't the only famous person who the twins counted as acquaintances. Amongst the celebrities they knew were actors George Raft, Judy Garland, Diana Dors, Liza Minelli and Jayne Mansfield, and singers Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Cliff Richard, Danny La Rue as well as comedian Peter Sellers.
Despite an almost 10-year age gap, Franie and Reggie fell in love and were married, but she tragically ended her own life by taking an overdose just two years later. She suffered from mental health problems and was only 23.
“Frances wanted an 'exit' from that sort of life once she sussed it out. “But Reggie would never let her go—he was very possessive.” Their marriage lasted two months, winding up in Cedra Court in Cazenov Road, Clapton, underneath Ronnie's flat. “It was a total disaster,” Jacky found.
Ronnie and Reggie Kray were twins born in Hoxton, East London, on October 23rd 1933 who became the most feared gangsters in the city during the 1950's and 1960's. They became involved in protection rackets, armed robberies, arson, assaults, and two murders in front of witnesses.
But this friendship often went through tumultuous times, with Manning revealing Reggie was just as bonkers, if not worse, than his brother Ron. Ronnie suffered from a schizophrenic illness which often led to violent outbursts, and him being considered the crazy twin.
The gangster Ronnie Kray (1933 to 1995) was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins by John George Pearson contains a good account of Ronnie's illness as well other aspects of he and and his brother Reggie's lives and criminal careers.
TV presenter Fred Dinenage spoke to both brothers during their lives - and recently discovered a previously-forgotten recording of Ronnie Kray warning young people away from a "life of misery". BBC Radio Berkshire's Sarah Walker speaks to Fred Dinenage about his experience speaking to the Kray twins.
