Everything you need to know about Mark ‘Chopper’ Read

HE cut off his own ears, released a children’s book and a hip hop album, and tried to kidnap a judge. Before watching Underbelly Files: Chopper here’s what you need to know about the colourful crim’s life.

HE cut off his own ears in Pentridge. He released a children’s book and a hip hop album. He tried to kidnap a judge.

Melbourne criminal Mark Brandon ‘Chopper’ Read was no ordinary bloke, with the life of the notorious standover man spawning books, a movie and now a television series.

Channel Nine’s new series Underbelly Files: Chopper will air on Sunday February 11, 2018 at 8:30pm and conclude Monday February 12, 2018 at 9:00pm.

Here’s everything you need to know about Chopper Read.

Aaron Jeffery plays Mark Brandon `Chopper' Read in the new Channel Nine telemovie Underbelly Files: Chopper. Photo: Channel Nine/Greg Noakes.

TIMELINE: THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF CHOPPER READ

BEGINNINGS [1954]

Growing up in Melbourne’s tough inner suburbs, Chopper’s name was actually Mark Pepper (his father had been adopted, with Pepper his legal surname). He later changed his surname to Read in an attempt to sound more menacing.

His father Keith (played in the series by Michael Caton) was a former soldier and his very religious mother was said to be the only person Chopper was afraid of.

READ ABOUT CHOPPER’S RISE TO INFAMY

Chopper in his younger days. Photo: Supplied

THAT TIME HE CUT OFF HIS EARS [1978]

Between 20 and 38 Chopper spent much of his life in jail for offences including armed robbery and kidnapping. He once tried to abduct a County Court judge at gunpoint.

One of things Chopper was best known for was cutting off his own ears behind bars — something he didn’t actually do himself.

Read enlisted the aid of another inmate to lop off his ears with a razor blade, and doctors were unable to sew them back on.

READ WHAT A FORMER DETECTIVE THOUGHT OF CHOPPER

DEATH OF SAMMY ‘THE TURK’ OZERKAM [1987]

Read had always claimed that the killing of Sammy The Turk outside Bojangles nightclub was done in self-defence.

Decades later he declared in a television interview that it had been “outright murder”.

READ ABOUT THE MURDERS CHOPPER CLAIMED HE COMMITTED

But then, on his deathbed in 2013, he admitted he’d lied about murdering Ozerkam and three others.

READ ABOUT CHOPPER’S DEATHBED CONFESSION

CHOPPER THE AUTHOR [1991]

Desperate for publicity, Read would send letters to Melbourne’s The Sun newspaper office. This led to reporters John Silvester and Andrew Rule creating Chopper from the Inside.

The book sold more than 300,000 copies.

READ ABOUT ANDREW RULE’S FIRST MEETING WITH CHOPPER

THE FAMILY MAN [1995]

While behind bars in Tasmania’s Risdon Prison he married first wife Mary-Ann Hodge.

After his release they lived on a local farm and son Charlie was born in 1999.

They divorced in 2003 and Chopper married an old flame, Margaret, who now works as a teacher’s aide.

READ ABOUT WHY WOMEN FALL FOR CRIMINALS

Actor Eric Bana as Mark 'Chopper' Read in a scene from the 2000 film Chopper. Photo: Supplied

CHOPPER THE MOVIE [2000]

Directed by Andrew Dominik, Chopper launched the career of Melbourne comedian Eric Bana.

But Chopper’s second wife Margaret wasn’t thrilled with the portrayal of Read’s love interest in the film.

READ WHAT MARGARET READ SAYS ABOUT CHOPPER FILM & SERIES

Cover of Chopper’s book Hooky The Cripple. Photo: Supplied

WRITES KIDS BOOK, RELEASES HIP HOP ALBUM, HOLDS EXHIBITION [2002-2011]

Bizarrely, in 2002 Chopper released the illustrated book Hooky the Cripple: The Grim Tale of a Hunchback who Triumphs.

He declared: “The book will get into all the schools, the kiddies will read it and they will love it”.

In 2006 Chopper turned his hand to music, releasing Interview with a Madman, featuring a whopping 28 tracks including some skits.

Chopper’s 2011 painting exhibition was surprisingly well-received, with The Hogan Gallery in Collingwood showing 22 of his works.

SEE CHOPPER’S LIFE IN PICTURES

Mark 'Chopper' Read on the set of Pinball at The Carringbush Hotel in Abbotsford, with actor John Jarratt. Photo: Supplied

FILMS MOVIE WITH WOLF CREEK STAR [2012]

Despite suffering from liver cancer, Read appeared as himself in the Melbourne thriller Pinball opposite Wolf Creek star John Jarratt.

Chopper was ailing and at times struggled to stay awake as he adlibbed his lines at Abbotsford’s Carringbush Hotel.

READ ABOUT CHOPPER’S MOVIE SWANSONG

FAREWELL CHOPPER [2013]

On October 9, 2013 Chopper died at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, aged 58.

He had performed his last stand-up show at a packed Athenaeum Theatre only two weeks earlier. Chopper had spent more than 15 years living on the right side of the law with wife Margaret in Collingwood. The last years of his life had been spent painting, writing and performing in films and stand-up comedy.

READ ABOUT THE DEATH OF CHOPPER READ