John Bindon

As a teenager, he served time in a borstal for possessing live ammunition. After jobs ranging from laying asphalt to dealing in antiques (his best friend for several years was the glamorous and now-infamous international antiques dealer John Hobbs) Bindon pursued a career in acting. Director Ken Loach, spotting him in a London pub in 1966, considered him perfect for the role of a rough husband in the film, Poor Cow (1967). His next big break came the following year with a role in Performance (not released until 1970) alongside Mick Jagger, where he played a violent mobster. His portrayal earned him critical praise and typecast him for future roles.

In 1968, he met Vicki Hodge, a baronet's daughter turned model and actress, who introduced him to British aristocracy. However, he had been previously invited to the Caribbean island resort of Mustique, where Bindon claimed to have had sex with Princess Margaret. The biographer of the Princess, Noel Botham, was also of the opinion that Bindon had an affair with her. During this time Bindon gained the nickname "Big John", due to the reported size of his penis. He went back to Mustique for a second time in 1969 and took girlfriend Hodge with him. The princess later publicly denied meeting Bindon (despite pictures of them next to one another) and was reportedly unimpressed to hear stories of their sexual encounters in the press. Bindon's name was also linked with a succession of models, including Christine Keeler, the former Playboy "Bunny Girl" Serena Williams, and also Angela Barnett, then girlfriend and future wife of pop star David Bowie.

Bindon was awarded the Queen's Award for Bravery, a police bravery medal, for diving off Putney Bridge into the River Thames to rescue a drowning man, in 1968, although some said he had pushed the man in and only rescued him when a policeman appeared.

In early 1977, Bindon was hired by Peter Grant on advice from tour manager Richard Cole as security coordinator for the rock group Led Zeppelin during their concert tour of the United States. He had previously provided security for actors Ryan and Tatum O'Neal. An incident involving Bindon occurred at the band's concert at the Oakland Coliseum on 23 July 1977, near the end of their US tour. Upon arrival at the stadium, it is alleged that Bindon pushed a member of promoter Bill Graham's stage crew out of the way as the band entered via a backstage ramp. As a result, tension had been simmering between Graham's staff and Led Zeppelin's security team during the day, and as Grant and Bindon were walking down the ramp near the end of the concert, words were exchanged with stage crew chief Jim Downey, which resulted in Bindon knocking Downey out cold. Bindon maintained that he was goaded into the fight after Graham's crew referred to him as "a weak limey fuck".

In 1978, Bindon became involved in a fight with John Darke, a London gangster, outside the Ranelagh Yacht Club, in Fulham, London. Darke was stabbed nine times, resulting in his death, and Bindon managed to flee to Dublin with his own knife wounds covered up. He gave himself up to police and was subsequently tried at the Old Bailey in October 1979. The prosecution claimed that this was a £10,000 contract killing over drugs, with the fight as a cover for the death. However, the defence argued that Darke's death was in self-defence, saying Bindon was in fear of his life as he was being blackmailed about losing drug money and cocaine worth thousands of pounds.

Bindon was acquitted of Darke's murder in November 1979. It was reported that the "substantial appearance" of actor Bob Hoskins as a character witness at the trial helped sway the jury's verdict and that the judge, Sir William Mars-Jones, "had been sympathetic towards Bindon in his summing-up and unhappy with the ragbag of witnesses produced by the prosecution".

During the 1980s, Bindon became a more reclusive figure, spending more of his time at his Belgravia flat. He died of an AIDS-related illness on 10 October 1993.

In 2002, a Carlton Television documentary of Bindon's life entitled Real Crime: Starring John Bindon was screened in the UK on ITV. It featured archival footage of Bindon behind the scenes and interviews with Angie Bowie, Vicki Hodge, Billy Murray, George Sewell and James Whitaker. Bindon also featured in the Carlton documentary for ITV, The Secret Life of Princess Margaret, broadcast in 2005. Bindon's relationship with Princess Margaret was the subject of Channel 4's documentary The Princess and the Gangster, which was broadcast on 9 February 2009.

In 2005, Wensley Clarkson's biography of Bindon, Bindon: Fighter, Gangster, Actor, Lover – the True Story of John Bindon, a Modern Legend was published by John Blake Publishing.

Bindon and his alleged relationship with Princess Margaret is a major plot element in the 2008 crime film The Bank Job. The film is based on an actual 1971 robbery of a Lloyds Bank in London when numerous safe deposit boxes were opened and ransacked. The film alludes to the unsubstantiated claim that among the items taken were compromising photographs showing Margaret on a Caribbean beach with Bindon.

In 2010, Bindon was the subject of Ten Men: The Lives of John Bindon, a one-man verse play written and directed by Franklyn McCabe, with Matthew Houghton playing Bindon. The play was performed at the Open House pub theatre as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival in 2010. It was revived at The Old Market in November 2011.

Bindon appeared as a character played by the actor Jason Merrells in the stage play A Princess Undone which opened at the Cambridge Arts Theatre in October 2016.