George Harrison

George Harrison  MBE 25 February 1943 29 November 2001 was an English rock guitarist singersongwriter actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles  Often referred to as the quiet Beatle  Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism and introduced it to the other Beatles as well as those of their Western audience Following the bands breakup he had a successful career as a solo artist and later as part of the Traveling Wilburys and also as a film and record producer Harrison is listed at number 21 in Rolling Stone magazines list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time Although most of The Beatles songs were written by Lennon and McCartney Beatle albums generally included one or two of Harrisons own songs from With The Beatles onwards  His later compositions with The Beatles include Here Comes the Sun Something and While My Guitar Gently Weeps By the time of the bands breakup Harrison had accumulated a backlog of material which he then released as the acclaimed and successful triple album All Things Must Pass in 1970 from which came two singles a double Aside single My Sweet Lord backed with Isnt It a Pity and What Is Life In addition to his solo work Harrison cowrote two hits for Ringo Starr another former Beatle as well as songs for the Traveling Wilburysthe supergroup he formed in 1988 with Bob Dylan Tom Petty Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison Harrison embraced Indian culture and Hinduism in the mid 1960s and helped expand Western awareness of sitar music and of the Hare Krishna movement With Ravi Shankar he organised a major charity concert with the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh Besides being a musician he was also a record producer and cofounder of the production company HandMade Films In his work as a film producer he collaborated with people as diverse as the members of Monty Python and Madonna He was married twice to model Pattie Boyd from 1966 to 1974 and for 23 years to record company secretary Olivia Trinidad Arias with whom he had one son Dhani Harrison He was a close friend of Eric Clapton He is the only Beatle to have published an autobiography with I Me Mine in 1980 Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001