Notorious former underworld identity Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read has died after a long battle with liver cancer. But how much do you know about him?

WARNING: Graphic content follows.

1. Read spent the first five years of his life in a children's home, and was made a ward of the state by the age of 14

Read says he was certified mentally insane three times - at ages 15, 19 and 23, and that he was given "60 serves of shock treatment in six months".

2. Read earned his reputation as a hard man first by ripping off drug dealers in Melbourne, then making his living kidnapping and torturing members of the criminal underworld

Black and white file photo of Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read, date unknown.





3. Read spent only 13 months outside prison between the ages of 20 and 38

A mugshot of Mark 'Chopper' Read, taken in 1975.

He served time after being convicted of armed robbery, kidnapping, arson, impersonating a police officer, assault and attempted murder. He was sentenced to 13 years in jail for attempting to kidnap a County Court judge at gunpoint.

4. In the late 1970s, Read had a fellow prisoner cut his ears off, in order to get out of Pentridge Prison's H division

Chopper Read (played by Eric Bana) gets his ear sliced off in a scene from the film Chopper (2000).

5. Read was already known as 'Chopper' - the name came from the cartoon bulldog in the show Yakky Doodle

Chopper the dog was a character in the 1970s cartoon Yakky Doodle

6. Read lost several feet of intestines after being stabbed by fellow inmates and longtime friends Jimmy Loughnan and Ned Clonan



Mark 'Chopper' Read shows off his stomach scars in an anti-drink driving ad for the Pedestrian Council of Australia.

7. In his books Read claims to have been involved in the killing of 19 people and the attempted murder of 11 others

He has recently downgraded this to "about four or seven". He has also said he would "never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn".

8. Read has sold more than 500,000 copies of his 'Chopper' books and has also written a 'kids' book for adults' called Hooky the Cripple

Hooky the Cripple by Mark 'Chopper' Read, illustrated by Adam Cullen ( Pan Macmillan )

9. He's also recorded a hip hop album, Interview With a Madman

Loading...





10. Eric Bana launched his Hollywood career after playing Read in the 2000 film Chopper

Eric Bana as Mark 'Chopper' Read in the 2000 film Chopper

11. Read contracted Hepatitis C during his time in prison, he says through using a blood-stained shaver



Former underworld figure Mark 'Chopper' Read launches his children's book Hooky the Cripple in Sydney, 2002. ( AAP: Dean Lewins )

12. In 2009 he revealed he needed a liver transplant, but would not accept one if offered

Mark 'Chopper' Read at Brisbane's Narangba Tavern in 2009. ( Rebecca Levingston )

"I'm not going to ask for a liver transplant, it's not fair. I'm 55 years old; I'm not going to put my name down against some 10-year-old kid."





13. In September 2013, Read was admitted to hospital and then transferred to palliative care

Read died on October 9, 2013.