Ringo Starr
Who was Ringo Starr?
Drummer for The Beatles who joined the band in 1962, replacing Pete Best, and later pursued a solo career in music and acting.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Ringo Starr (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Sir Richard Starkey, better known as Ringo Starr, was born on 7 July 1940 in the Dingle area of Liverpool, England. He became famous worldwide as the drummer for the Beatles, one of the most successful and acclaimed acts in music history. Starr joined the group in August 1962, replacing Pete Best, and stayed with them until they broke up in 1970. During his time with the Beatles, he sometimes sang lead vocals on songs like "Yellow Submarine" and "With a Little Help from My Friends." He also wrote and sang "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden," showing a unique songwriting style different from his bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Before Fame
Richard Starkey grew up in working-class Dingle, Liverpool, and spent a lot of his early childhood in and out of hospitals because of serious illnesses, including a nearly fatal case of peritonitis at age six and a bout of tuberculosis that kept him in the hospital for two years as a teenager. These long absences left him with significant gaps in his formal education. As a teenager, he got caught up in the skiffle craze that swept Britain in the mid-1950s and co-founded the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group in 1957. When American rock and roll overtook the skiffle trend around 1958, Starr moved into beat music and eventually joined Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, a popular Liverpool band that toured Hamburg and gained a following on the British circuit. While playing in Hamburg, Starr first performed alongside members of the Beatles, leading to his invitation to join the group permanently in 1962.
Key Achievements
- Drummer for the Beatles from 1962 until the band's disbandment in 1970
- Academy Award for Best Original Score as part of the Beatles' Let It Be soundtrack team (1971)
- Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015
- Knighted as a Knight Bachelor in 2018
- Awarded an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 2022
Did You Know?
- 01.Starr was born with a congenital pyloric stenosis and later contracted peritonitis at age six and tuberculosis at age thirteen, spending years in hospital before his teens were over.
- 02.He adopted the stage name Ringo Starr in part as a nod to his habit of wearing multiple rings on his fingers.
- 03.Starr narrated the first two series of the British children's television programme Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, and later portrayed Mr. Conductor in the first season of the American spin-off Shining Time Station.
- 04.His 1973 solo album Ringo featured contributions from all three of his former Beatles bandmates, though none recorded together simultaneously for the project.
- 05.Starr was knighted in 2018, receiving the Knight Bachelor honour, more than five decades after he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1965 alongside the other Beatles.
Family & Personal Life
Awards & Honors
| Award | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Member of the Order of the British Empire | 1965 | — |
| Academy Award for Best Original Score | 1971 | — |
| Rock and Roll Hall of Fame | 2015 | — |
| Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres | — | — |
| Knight Bachelor | 2018 | — |
| star on Hollywood Walk of Fame | — | — |
| honorary doctor of the Berklee College of Music | 2022 | — |