George Harrison is beloved for his career as a Beatle and as a Grammy-winning solo
musician. While he enjoyed plenty of professional and personal success,
his life was also often marked by darker moments. This is his tragic real-life story.
By the time of his death in 2001, Harrison had a reported net worth of $400 million. He'd come
a long way since his childhood in Liverpool. Just like the other Beatles, he didn't exactly
grow up in wealth and comfort in post-World War II England. Far from it. He was born on February 25,
1943 in the Wavertree area of Liverpool, the youngest of Harold and Louise Harrison's four
children. All of the downstairs rooms in his childhood home were only 10 square feet
and during the winter, the house would get terribly cold. Young George used an
outdoor toilet as he and his family made do without any hot running water indoors.
In 1949, the Harrison family moved into a council house, which is a form of public housing in
England, on 25 Upton Green, in the city of Speke. In 1954, Harrison started to attend the Liverpool
Institute High School for Boys, even though it was a far bus ride away. Though it took a while to get
home, it was on one of these bus rides that he met an upperclassman who also lived in the area,
and the pair sparked a friendship. That upperclassman was none other than Paul McCartney.
On July 6, 1957, a 15-year-old Paul McCartney watched a local skiffle
band called The Quarrymen play. The group was fronted by an almost 17-year-old John Lennon.
Lennon and McCartney's shared love of music led to a friendship and partnership
as McCartney soon joined the band, which led into their time together in the Beatles.
While Lennon was the clear leader of the Beatles in their early days, McCartney knew
his school friend George Harrison's skills at the guitar surpassed everyone else's in the group.
But there was a major sticking point that made Lennon hesitate to add Harrison, as he was three
years younger than Lennon and one year younger than McCartney. But then during a bus ride,
Harrison played a perfect rendition of the rock and roll song "Raunchy," which convinced Lennon
to add him into the group as the lead guitarist. This wouldn't be the last time that Harrison's
age affected his career. When the Beatles began to play shows in Hamburg, Germany, their first
residency ended with Harrison being deported, as he was only 17 and thus ineligible to work.
As the Beatles' popularity grew, each member became known by his reputation:
John was the smart one, Paul was the cute one, and Ringo was the funny one. George Harrison,
meanwhile, earned the title of the "quiet Beatle." While he never complained about the nickname,
people close to him knew it was inaccurate. His silent reputation came in part from his
shyness and from being the youngest Beatle, and also from having to share the stage with
three bandmates who had louder personalities. On the stage, he usually kept his head down and
focused on his guitar playing, while Lennon and McCartney commanded attention with the vocals.
A big reason for the reputation, though, was that when the group arrived in the United
States in February 1964, Harrison was suffering from a 104-degree temperature and strep throat.
That kept him inside while the other Beatles enjoyed New York City. His sister Louise,
who cared for her brother while he was ill, told the New York Post that his nickname
came in part because he didn't really feel like talking very much while he was sick.
Much has been discussed about the Lennon-McCartney
relationship throughout the years. But their interactions with George Harrison
were at times the most contentious within the band. Harrison once told Rolling Stone,
"My problem was that it would always be very difficult to get in on the act because Paul was
very pushy in that respect. When he succumbed to playing on one of your tunes, he'd always do good.
But you'd have to do 59 of Paul's songs before he'd even listen to one of yours."
"Is there a slight undercurrent of hostility between you and the other members of the Beatles?"
"No, no! Really!"
Harrison and Lennon's relationship grew during their time together in the Beatles,
but it eventually deteriorated as Harrison desired to grow as a songwriter and became
tired of Yoko Ono, Lennon's girlfriend and future wife. Harrison even left the band for a bit after
a blowup with Lennon in 1969. After the Beatles broke up, the two repaired their relationship,
with Harrison even playing guitar on the Lennon song "How Do You Sleep?"
But then their relationship deteriorated over the next decade,
and they never reconciled before Lennon's death in 1980. As for McCartney, he met with Harrison
less than two weeks before Harrison's death and they had a long, friendly conversation,
though they reportedly still had a volatile relationship until Harrison's passing.
After the Beatles broke up, Harrison launched right into the new decade with the release of
his 1970 solo album All Things Must Pass. Filled with songs he stockpiled during his
final years with the Beatles, it's considered by many as the best solo album by any former Beatle.
Songs such as "Isn't It a Pity" and "Let It Down" were completely ignored and rejected by McCartney
and Lennon for Beatles records, but both wound up as beloved tracks on All Things Must Pass.
One of the many standout songs on the album was the chart-topping "My Sweet Lord," which
was inspired by the hymn "Oh Happy Day." Harrison wrote it in December 1969 and
attempted to give it to his friend Billy Preston, but he then recorded it himself.
Alas, trouble lay ahead. In February 1971, Bright Tunes Music sued Harrison for copyright
infringement, claiming that "My Sweet Lord" was too similar to a song under their label,
the Chiffons' 1963 hit "He's So Fine." The lawsuit wasn't settled until 1976 when the judge declared
that Harrison had subconsciously used the song and ruled in favor of Bright Tunes Music.
On the set of the Beatles' first film, A Hard Day's Night, a 21-year-old George Harrison
met a young model named Pattie Boyd. The two then began a romantic relationship and married in 1966.
But by the end of the decade, their marriage was on the rocks, thanks in part to one of Harrison's
closest friends. He and Eric Clapton had been collaborating in and out of the studio around
this time. Clapton played the guitar solo on Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," while
Harrison co-wrote the song "Badge," which appeared on the farewell album of Cream, Clapton's band.
During this same period, Clapton fell in love with Pattie Boyd.
In 1971, Clapton, now the leader of the band Derek and the Dominoes, wrote an
entire album about his unrequited love for his best friend's wife. The title track
"Layla" has endured as one of the most iconic classic rock songs of all time. Eventually,
Clapton confessed his love for Pattie to George while the three were at a party.
Boyd left Harrison in 1974 and then began a relationship with Clapton. Despite all this,
Harrison remained close with the new couple and even attended their wedding in 1979.
Outside of his music, Harrison became entangled with another iconic group of Brits,
as he became close friends with the Monty Python comedy troupe. The Python crew was
struggling to find a company that would produce their 1979 religious satire film,
Life of Brian, so Python member Eric Idle called Harrison. After reading the script
and talking to his business manager, Harrison established HandMade Films and remortgaged
his home to produce the film, which would become a critical and commercial smash hit.
HandMade Films would go on to become an important production company for British cinema throughout
the 1980s. It released films like Time Bandits and Withnail and I and helped to launch the film
careers of such actors as Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, and Richard E. Grant. But by the 90s,
the studio was on the verge of bankruptcy after a number of financial disappointments at the end
of the previous decade. Due to growing debt and falling numbers, the company disbanded. Harrison
later sued his partner Denis O'Brien for fraud and negligence and was awarded 11 million pounds.
The stress brought on by Beatlemania and the 1980 killing of John Lennon by a deranged fan
ultimately led Harrison to become very wary of the public.
"The moment I go out the gate, I think, 'What the hell am I doing here?'"
His concern for privacy was proven to be justified in 1999 when a young man broke into
his home and attacked him and his wife Olivia. On the night of December 30, around 3:30 AM,
a 33-year-old man named Michael Abram made his way into Harrison's mansion. Harrison confronted
him and attempted to tackle and disarm him, but he managed to stab Harrison in the chest. Olivia
then disarmed him by hitting him with a lamp, but her husband had suffered near-fatal wounds.
Abram claimed to have been driven by wild thoughts. He was ultimately found
not guilty for reason of insanity and spent two years in a mental hospital.
Following the attack, Harrison joked to the press,
"He wasn't a burglar, and he certainly wasn't auditioning for the Traveling Wilburys."
According to George and Olivia's son Dhani,
this incident took years off his father's life, as he was also fighting throat cancer at the time.
"It's gotta, it's gotta take it out of you, you know."
It wasn't just his former bandmates who George Harrison drifted apart in his later years. He
was very close to his older sister Louise for most of his life. He was even actually the first Beatle
to spend time in the United States. This was six months before the group's Ed Sullivan Show debut,
when he visited Louise and her American husband in Illinois. Beginning in 1980, George started
providing his sister a $2,000 monthly stipend. This came after Louise's two failed marriages
with husbands who had alcohol problems. According to Louise, her brother told her,
"Don't go getting married again. There's no reason,
given my circumstances, that my sister should have any kind of hardship."
By the early 90s, Louise decided to turn the home where a young George once stayed
into a Beatles-themed bed and breakfast. This angered George, though he still continued to
pay the stipend. Louise, for her part, said that she never tried to exploit the Beatles.
The two eventually reconciled when George was on his deathbed. Alas,
though, after his death, the monthly stipend that he had provided her stopped coming.
While the death of John Lennon was quick and violent, George Harrison went through a slow,
painful process as he suffered from the combined effects of throat cancer and a brain tumor.
A smoker for the majority of his life, he blamed the habit for his condition. His
cancer diagnosis came in 1997, and he immediately underwent treatment. It was initially successful,
but then in May 2001, he had to enter the Mayo Clinic for more treatment, this time for
lung cancer. Two months later, he had to undergo radiotherapy for a brain tumor in Switzerland.
In his final days, he flew to New York to undergo his final treatments for brain cancer.
While he was in bed shortly before his death, Harrison still had the energy to crack jokes with
Ringo Starr during their final conversation. Starr was on the way to Los Angeles because
his daughter was undergoing brain surgery herself. This prompted Harrison to quip,
"Do you want me to come with you?"
Those were the last words he ever spoke to his former bandmate. Harrison passed
away on November 29, 2001 in Los Angeles. Upon hearing the news, Paul McCartney said,
"He was a lovely guy and a very brave man and
had a wonderful sense of humor. He is really just my baby brother."
"This is the only life I can remember, and I'm happy enough doing it."
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