Biography
British musician, composer and producer, a world-known superstar member
of the rock 'n roll group "The Beatles," musical and cultural
icons of the tumultuous sixties.
Harrison was the youngest of four children born to Harold , a bus
driver, and Louise, a homemaker. A precocious youth who was a mediocre
student, Harrison was given his first guitar by his mother who encouraged
him continually despite her son's pleadings that he could never learn to
play it. Mom's encouragement won over and Harrison's fate was sealed on
2/06/1958 when a friend of his, Paul McCartney introduced him to a guitar
player named John Lennon. The three teenagers, along with their friend
Pete Best formed a band named the "Quarrymen" and rehearsed in
Harrison's home, with Mom Harrison cheering all their efforts.
The Quarrymen eventually changed their name to "The Beatles"
and with drummer Ringo Starr replacing Best, performed in the local
Liverpool club known as "The Cavern," and toured Scotland and
Germany. After signing with manager Brian Epstein, they toured America and
became overnight sensations, ultimately becoming a household word.
Harrison was the composer of Beatle hits "Taxman" and
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps."
When the band broke up in 1970, Harrison, who had been heavily
influenced by eastern mysticism and Indian musician Ravi Shankar, pursued
his own spiritual and musical path with albums including "All Things
Must Pass," " Dark Horse" (after the record company of the
same name he established in 1974), "Living in the Material
World" and "Somewhere in England." He purchased a film
company in 1978 with partner Dennis O'Brien called "HandMade
Films," and has bankrolled movies including "The Long Good
Friday," "Mona Lisa," "Time Bandits," "Monty
Python's Life of Brian" and "Shanghai Surprise." Despite
the success of HandMade Films, Harrison had no plans of being a full-time
producer. "I don't really want an office job, going there day after
day. I like to have it as a hobby," he said.
Following the assassination of fellow Beatle John Lennon in 1980,
Harrison became absolutely terrified of appearing in public and rarely
granted interviews. Making his first concert appearance after 12 years in
1987, he emerged officially from the shadows.
Friend Michael Palin of "Monty Python" remarked, 'I think in
some ways he is just recovering from being a Beatle. I think he's deciding
now that he can't live locked away all the time." In regards to
Harrison's religious and spiritual leanings, Palin also observed, "I
think he's absorbed as much as he can, and he's not on the quest, the
search for truth as he once was." Once out of his shell, Harrison
toured with the super-group "The Traveling Wilburys" in 1995
and, that same year, joined ex-Beatles Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney to
produce "The Beatles' Anthology." His autobiography entitled
"I Me Mine" was published in 1980.
While gardening in July 1997, Harrison noticed a lump in his neck. He
underwent surgery the following month to remove the cancerous nodule
followed by radiation. "I got it purely from smoking. I gave up
cigarettes many years ago but started again for awhile and then stopped in
1997. Luckily for me, they found that this nodule was more a warning than
anything else." In January 1998, Harrison went to the Mayo Clinic in
Rochester, MN, for tests and was informed that the cancer had not
returned. In May of that same year, further tests confirmed he was cancer
free.
Harrison's marriage to Pattie Boyd in 1966 ended in divorce in 1977.
The following year he married his former secretary at Dark Horse,
Mexican-American Olivia Arias, five months after the birth of their son
Dhani (Hindi for “rich man”) for whom he is a devoted. father.
Harrison enjoys domestic bliss on a 35 acre estate in a 30 room renovated
convent that he purchased from the Salesian Sisters in 1970. Two other
homes are maintained in Hawaii and Australia. Racing cars is another of
Harrison's pastimes, along with his full-time passions, gardening and
horticulture, for which he employs a full-time botanist. He and Olivia
live in a palatial guarded mansion some 25 miles west of London.
On 12/30/1999, Harrison fought off a knife-wielding intruder who broke
into his home at about 3:30 AM and in the struggle, was stabbed in the
chest, collapsing his right lung. The intruder was named by the press as
Michael Abram, a young man who heard voices in his head and believed that
the Beatles were witches. The wound was just short of hitting a critical
area, but George and Olivia fought off the youth until the police arrived.
In May 2001, his lawyers announced that he had undergone surgery at
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN to removed a cancerous growth from one of his
lungs and was recovering nicely in Tuscany, Italy. He had previously
conquered throat cancer in 1997. In early July 2001, he reported that he
was "feeling fine" after radiotherapy treatment at the Oncology
Institute in Switzerland for a rumored brain tumor.
Media reported that on 11/08/2001 Harrison was in a suite at Staten
Island University hospital, New York, being treated by radiotherapy, a
method of radiation used to shrink cancer tumors. He died on 11/29/2001 at
1:30 PM at a friend's Los Angeles home with his wife Olivia and son Dhani,
24, with him. The family made a statement to the press, "He left this
world as he lived in it, conscious of God, fearless of death, and at
peace, surrounded by family and friends. He often said, 'Everything else
can wait, but the search for God cannot wait; love one another.'"
Top
For More Information on the Web:
|
