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George Harrison is a Actor, Director, Scriptwriter, Producer and Sound British born on 25 february 1943 at Liverpool (United-kingdom)

George Harrison

George Harrison
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Nationality United-kingdom
Birth 25 february 1943 at Liverpool (United-kingdom)
Death 29 november 2001 (at 58 years) at Los Angeles (USA)
Creator of HandMade Films
Awards Order of the British Empire, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Billboard Music Award, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

George Harrison, MBE (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter and music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Although John Lennon and Paul McCartney were the band's primary songwriters, most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contained at least two Harrison compositions. His songs for the group included "Taxman", "Within You Without You", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something", the last of which became the Beatles' second-most-covered song.

Harrison's earliest musical influences included George Formby and Django Reinhardt; Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry and Ry Cooder were significant later influences. By 1965 he had begun to lead the Beatles into folk rock through his interest in the Byrds and Bob Dylan, and towards Indian classical music through his use of the sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". He developed an interest in the Hare Krishna movement and became an admirer of Indian culture and mysticism, introducing them to the other members of the Beatles and their Western audience by incorporating Indian instrumentation in their music. After the band's break-up in 1970, Harrison released the triple album All Things Must Pass, a critically acclaimed work that produced his most successful hit single, "My Sweet Lord", and introduced his signature sound as a solo artist, the slide guitar. He also organised the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh with Indian musician Ravi Shankar, a precursor for later benefit concerts such as Live Aid. Harrison was a music and film producer as well as a musician; he founded Dark Horse Records in 1974 and co-founded HandMade Films in 1978.

Harrison released several best-selling singles and albums as a solo performer, and in 1988 co-founded the platinum-selling supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. A prolific recording artist, he was featured as a guest guitarist on tracks by Badfinger, Ronnie Wood and Billy Preston, and collaborated on songs and music with Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Tom Petty, among others. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". He is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee – as a member of the Beatles in 1988, and (posthumously) for his solo career in 2004.

Harrison's first marriage, to model Pattie Boyd in 1966, ended in divorce in 1977. The following year he married Olivia Harrison (née Arias), with whom he had one son, Dhani Harrison. Harrison died in 2001, aged 58, from lung cancer. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India, in a private ceremony according to Hindu tradition. He left an estate of almost £100 million.

Biography

Hinduism



By the mid-1960s Harrison had become an admirer of Indian culture and mysticism, introducing it to the other Beatles. During the filming of Help! in the Bahamas, they met the founder of Sivananda Yoga, Swami Vishnu-devananda, who gave each of them a signed copy of his book, The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga. Between the end of the last Beatles tour in 1966 and the beginning of the Sgt Pepper recording sessions, he made a pilgrimage to Bombay with his wife Pattie, where he studied sitar, met several gurus, and visited various holy places. In 1968 he travelled to Rishikesh in northern India with the other Beatles to study meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Harrison's use of psychedelic drugs encouraged his path to meditation and Hinduism. He commented: "For me, it was like a flash. The first time I had acid, it just opened up something in my head that was inside of me, and I realized a lot of things. I didn't learn them because I already knew them, but that happened to be the key that opened the door to reveal them. From the moment I had that, I wanted to have it all the time – these thoughts about the yogis and the Himalayas, and Ravi's music."

Harrison became a vegetarian in the late 1960s, and a devotee of the Indian mystic Paramahansa Yogananda, a guru who proselytised Kriya yoga, after he was given Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi by Ravi Shankar. (Yogananda and three other major figures from Kriya yoga, Sri Mahavatar Babaji, Sri Yukteswar Giri, and Sri Lahiri Mahasaya, appear on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.) In mid-1969, he produced the single "Hare Krishna Mantra", performed by members of the London Radha Krishna Temple. Soon after, Harrison embraced the Hare Krishna tradition, particularly japa-yoga chanting with beads, and became a lifelong devotee. Regarding other faiths he once remarked: "All religions are branches of one big tree. It doesn't matter what you call Him just as long as you call." He commented on his beliefs:


Krishna actually was in a body as a person ... What makes it complicated is, if he's God, what's he doing fighting on a battlefield? It took me ages to try to figure that out, and again it was Yogananda's spiritual interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita that made me realise what it was. Our idea of Krishna and Arjuna on the battlefield in the chariot. So this is the point – that we're in these bodies, which is like a kind of chariot, and we're going through this incarnation, this life, which is kind of a battlefield. The senses of the body ... are the horses pulling the chariot, and we have to get control over the chariot by getting control over the reins. And Arjuna in the end says, 'Please Krishna, you drive the chariot' because unless we bring Christ or Krishna or Buddha or whichever of our spiritual guides ... we're going to crash our chariot, and we're going to turn over, and we're going to get killed in the battlefield. That's why we say ‍ '​Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna‍ '​, asking Krishna to come and take over the chariot.

Before his religious conversion, the only British performer known for similar activities had been Cliff Richard, whose conversion to Christianity in 1966 had gone largely unnoticed by the public. "By contrast," wrote Inglis, "Harrison's spiritual journey was seen as a serious and important development that reflected popular music's increasing maturity ... what he, and the Beatles had managed to overturn was the paternalistic assumption that popular musicians had no role other than to stand on stage and sing their hit songs."


Family and interests

Harrison married the model Pattie Boyd on 21 January 1966, with McCartney as best man. Harrison and Boyd had met in 1964 during the production of the film A Hard Day's Night, in which the 19-year-old Boyd had been cast as a schoolgirl. They separated in 1974 and their divorce was finalised in 1977. Boyd said her decision to end their marriage and leave Harrison was due largely to his repeated infidelities, culminating in an affair with Starr's wife Maureen, which Boyd called "the final straw". She characterised the last year of their marriage as "fuelled by alcohol and cocaine", and she stated: "George used coke excessively, and I think it changed him ... it froze his emotions and hardened his heart." She subsequently moved in with Eric Clapton, and they married in 1979.

Harrison married Dark Horse Records' secretary Olivia Trinidad Arias on 2 September 1978. They had met at the Dark Horse offices in Los Angeles in 1974, and together had one son, Dhani Harrison, born on 1 August 1978.

He restored the English manor house and grounds of Friar Park, his home in Henley-on-Thames, where several of his music videos were filmed including "Crackerbox Palace"; the grounds also served as the background for the cover of All Things Must Pass. He employed ten workers to maintain the 36-acre (150,000 m) garden. Harrison commented on gardening as a form of escapism: "Sometimes I feel like I'm actually on the wrong planet, and it's great when I'm in my garden, but the minute I go out the gate I think: 'What the hell am I doing here?'" His autobiography, I, Me, Mine, is dedicated "to gardeners everywhere". The former Beatles publicist Derek Taylor helped Harrison write the book, which said little about the Beatles, focusing instead on Harrison's hobbies, music and lyrics. Taylor commented: "George is not disowning the Beatles ... but it was a long time ago and actually a short part of his life."

Harrison had an interest in sports cars and motor racing; he was one of the 100 people who purchased the McLaren F1 road car. He had collected photos of racing drivers and their cars since he was young; at 12 he had attended his first race, the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree. He wrote "Faster" as a tribute to the Formula One racing drivers Jackie Stewart and Ronnie Peterson. Proceeds from its release went to the Gunnar Nilsson cancer charity, set up after the Swedish driver's death from the disease in 1978. Harrison's first extravagant car, a 1964 Aston Martin DB5, was sold at auction on 7 December 2011 in London. An anonymous Beatles collector paid £350,000 for the vehicle that Harrison had bought new in January 1965.


Relationships with the other Beatles
For most of the Beatles' career the relationships in the group were close. According to Hunter Davies, "the Beatles spent their lives not living a communal life, but communally living the same life. They were each other's greatest friends." Harrison's ex-wife Pattie Boyd described how the Beatles "all belonged to each other" and admitted, "George has a lot with the others that I can never know about. Nobody, not even the wives, can break through or even comprehend it."

Starr said, "We really looked out for each other and we had so many laughs together. In the old days we'd have the biggest hotel suites, the whole floor of the hotel, and the four of us would end up in the bathroom, just to be with each other". He added, "there were some really loving, caring moments between four people: a hotel room here and there – a really amazing closeness. Just four guys who loved each other. It was pretty sensational."

Lennon stated that his relationship with Harrison was "one of young follower and older guy ... [he] was like a disciple of mine when we started." The two later bonded over their LSD experiences, finding common ground as seekers of spirituality. They took radically different paths thereafter, Harrison finding God and Lennon coming to the conclusion that people are the creators of their own lives. In 1974 Harrison said of his former bandmate: "John Lennon is a saint and he's heavy-duty, and he's great and I love him. But at the same time, he's such a bastard – but that's the great thing about him, you see?"

Harrison and McCartney were the first of the Beatles to meet, having shared a school bus, and often learned and rehearsed new guitar chords together. McCartney stated that he and Harrison usually shared a bedroom while touring. McCartney was best man at Harrison's wedding in 1966, and was the only Beatle in attendance. McCartney has referred to Harrison as his "baby brother". In a 1974 BBC radio interview with Alan Freeman, Harrison stated: "[McCartney] ruined me as a guitar player". Perhaps the most significant obstacle to a Beatles reunion after the death of Lennon was Harrison and McCartney's personal relationship, as both men admitted that they often got on each other's nerves. Rodriguez commented: "Even to the end of George's days, theirs was a volatile relationship".


Humanitarian work
Harrison was involved in humanitarian and political activism throughout his life. In the 1960s, the Beatles supported the civil rights movement and protested against the Vietnam War. After the band's break-up, Ravi Shankar consulted Harrison about how to provide aid to the people of Bangladesh after the 1970 Bhola cyclone and the Bangladesh Liberation War. Harrison recorded the song "Bangla Desh", and pushed Apple Records to release his song alongside Shankar's "Joy Bangla" in an effort to raise funds. Shankar then asked for Harrison's advice about planning a small charity event in the US. Harrison responded by organising the Concert for Bangladesh, which raised more than $240,000. In June 1972, UNICEF honoured Harrison and Shankar with the "Child Is the Father of Man" award at an annual ceremony in recognition of their fundraising efforts for Bangladesh.

The George Harrison Humanitarian Fund for UNICEF, a joint effort between the Harrison family and the US Fund for UNICEF, aims to support programmes that help children caught in humanitarian emergencies. In December 2007, they donated $450,000 to help the victims of Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh. On 13 October 2009, the first George Harrison Humanitarian Award went to Ravi Shankar for his efforts in saving the lives of children, and his involvement with the Concert for Bangladesh.

Best films

Time Bandits (1981)
(Executive Producer)
Across the Universe (2007)
(Songs)
Life of Brian (1979)
(Executive Producer)

Usually with

Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
(27 films)
John Lennon
John Lennon
(26 films)
Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
(31 films)
Michael Palin
Michael Palin
(7 films)
Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam
(5 films)
Source : Wikidata

Filmography of George Harrison (60 films)

Display filmography as list

Actor

Imagine
Imagine (2018)
, 1h10
Directed by John Lennon, Yoko Ono
Origin USA
Genres Documentary, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Documentary films about music and musicians, Documentaire sur une personnalité, Musical films
Actors John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Fred Astaire, Vanessa Williams, Nathan Karl Kress, Dick Cavett
Roles Self
Rating72% 3.634293.634293.634293.634293.63429
The program consists mostly of "film promos" around the song selection, interspersed with occasional slices of Lennon and Ono's life together, and also fantasy and "gag" sequences. In one of these, a succession of men (ranging from Lennon and Ono's assistants to celebrities including Fred Astaire, Jack Palance, Dick Cavett, and even George Harrison) escort Ono over and over through a doorway; in another, John and Yoko lose each other on the Tittenhurst grounds, and go looking.
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years, 1h46
Directed by Ron Howard
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Documentary, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Documentary films about music and musicians, Concert, Musical films, Les Beatles
Actors Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, George Harrison, Richard Curtis, Whoopi Goldberg
Roles Self (archive footage)
Rating77% 3.8957953.8957953.8957953.8957953.895795
Le documentaire explore les premières années de la carrière du groupe et tente d'expliquer la synergie qui liait John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison et Ringo Starr qui a permis de les amener vers les sommets des palmarès mondiaux pour devenir un phénomène culturel global.
Cilla (TV series)
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama
Actors Sheridan Smith, Aneurin Barnard, Cilla Black, Ed Stoppard, Brian Epstein, John Henshaw
Roles Michael Hawkins
Rating78% 3.9438953.9438953.9438953.9438953.943895
The series is based around Black's hometown of Liverpool and follows her rise to fame from 1960 amateur appearances in clubs, her relationships with Bobby Willis and Brian Epstein to the latter's death in 1967.
Awake: The Life of Yogananda
Origin USA
Genres Documentary
Actors George Harrison, Anupam Kher, Ravi Shankar, Herb Jeffries
Roles Self (archive footage)
Rating71% 3.5914053.5914053.5914053.5914053.591405
Le film retrace la vie de Paramahansa Yogananda qui a fait connaître dans les années 1920 des techniques du yoga et de la méditation en Occident. Son livre « Autobiographie d'un Yogi », best seller mondial, a été une source d'inspiration pour d'innombrables yogis et des personnalités comme George Harrison, Russell Simmons ou encore Steve Jobs. En évoquant le voyage de l'âme comme une oppression de l'égo et de l'illusion de monde matériel, le film créé une immersion dans l'irréel. Ce film raconte finalement l'histoire de l'humanité elle- même : les épreuves auxquelles tous les êtres sont confrontés pour se libérer des souffrances et rechercher un bonheur durable.
Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed, 1h45
Directed by David Trueba
Origin Espagne
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama
Themes Films about music and musicians, Transport films, Films about automobiles, Musical films, Road movies
Actors Javier Cámara, Ariadna Gil, Natalia de Molina, Jorge Sanz, Angel de Andrés Miquel, George Harrison
Roles lui-même (images d'archive)
Rating69% 3.495873.495873.495873.495873.49587
It is 1966 in Albacete, an English teacher and die-hard Beatles fan Antonio (played by Javier Cámara) decides to go on a road trip to Almería in the hope of meeting John Lennon, who is shooting How I Won the War there under the direction of Richard Lester. On the way he picks up two hitch-hikers, Juanjo (Francesc Colomer) and Belén (Natalia de Molina), and the unlikely trio follow their dreams and look for their own freedom.
Genius
Genius (2012)

Genres Documentary
Actors Sanusha, Paul McCartney, R. Sarathkumar, Ringo Starr, Abhinaya, John Lennon
Roles Self (archive footage)
Rating47% 2.3659552.3659552.3659552.3659552.365955
George Harrison: Living in the Material World, 3h24
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Origin USA
Genres Biography, Documentary, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Documentary films about music and musicians, Documentaire sur une personnalité, Musical films
Actors George Harrison, Eric Idle, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Neil Aspinall
Roles Self (archive footage)
Rating80% 4.046284.046284.046284.046284.04628
The film follows music legend George Harrison's story from his early life in Liverpool, the Beatlemania phenomenon, his travels to India, the influence of Krishna Consciousness movement in his music, and his relevance and importance as a member of The Beatles. It consists of previously unseen footage and interviews with Olivia and Dhani Harrison, friends, and many others.
Beatles Stories
Origin USA
Genres Documentary
Themes Films about music and musicians, Documentary films about music and musicians, Documentaire sur une personnalité, Musical films
Actors George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Jack Benny, Jack Douglas
Roles Self (archive footage)
Rating72% 3.615043.615043.615043.615043.61504
Songwriter Seth Swirsky grew up in the 1960s, a fan of The Beatles. As he got older he noticed that whenever someone told a story about themselves and his favorite band he was all ears.
The Society of the Spectacle, 1h28
Directed by Guy Debord
Origin France
Genres Documentary
Themes Films about anarchism, Politique, Political films
Actors Guy Debord, Nino Ferrer, Johnny Hallyday, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Eddy Mitchell
Roles Self (archive footage)
Rating71% 3.5794753.5794753.5794753.5794753.579475
Guy Debord y développe une théorie de la spectacularisation de la société qui se trouve par là-même vidée de tout contenu, où « le spectacle est une guerre de l'opium permanente pour faire accepter l'identification des biens aux marchandises et de la satisfaction à la survie augmentant selon ses propres lois » (citation du film).
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down a Dream, 3h58
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
Origin USA
Genres Documentary, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Documentary films about music and musicians, Documentaire sur une personnalité, Musical films
Actors Jeff Lynne, Dave Grohl, George Harrison, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Rick Rubin
Roles Self (archive footage)
Rating85% 4.2860254.2860254.2860254.2860254.286025
Ce film explore l'histoire de Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, y compris les collaborations célèbres de Petty et les affrontements notoires avec l'industrie du disque. Des entretiens avec des personnalités musicales telles que Jackson Browne, George Harrison, Eddie Vedder, Roger McGuinn, Jeff Lynne, Dave Stewart et Petty lui-même ont apporté une vision révélatrice.
Naqoyqatsi
Naqoyqatsi (2002)
, 1h29
Directed by Godfrey Reggio
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Documentary, Musical
Actors Marlon Brando, Elton John, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Steven Soderbergh, Ronald Reagan, Paul McCartney
Roles Self (archive footage)
Rating63% 3.196733.196733.196733.196733.19673
According to Reggio, the film has no screenplay per se, but three movements (like those of a symphony) with different themes:
Wingspan
Wingspan (2001)

Genres Documentary, Musical
Actors Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono
Roles Himself (archive footage)
Rating77% 3.8843953.8843953.8843953.8843953.884395
The Beatles Anthology (documentary)
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Documentary, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Documentary films about music and musicians, Documentaire sur une personnalité, Musical films
Actors John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Neil Aspinall, George Martin
Roles Himself
Rating90% 4.546784.546784.546784.546784.54678
Ce sont les Beatles eux-mêmes qui racontent leur histoire à l'aide des nombreuses images tournées durant leur carrière, et parfois de leurs propres archives audiovisuelles. Neil Aspinall, George Martin et Derek Taylor interviennent aussi dans cette série dont la fabrication a pris cinq années. En 2003, cette série est publiée dans un coffret de cinq DVD. Dans le DVD bonus, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr et George Harrison jouent ensemble quelques titres de leurs débuts dans la propriété de ce dernier, au milieu des années 1990. On les surnommera pour le coup les Threetles. Ils se réunissent également avec George Martin dans les studios Abbey Road, devant la table de mixage, pour décortiquer ensemble des titres comme Tomorrow Never Knows ou Golden Slumbers.