John Winston (later Ono) Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England. In the mid-1950s he formed his first band, The Quarrymen (after Quarry Bank High School, which he attended) who, with the addition of Paul McCartney and George Harrison, later became The Beatles. After some years of performing in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany, "Beatlemania" erupted in England and Europe in 1963 after the release of their singles "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me". The next year the Beatles flew to America to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show (aka The Ed Sullivan Show), and Beatlemania spread worldwide. Queen Elizabeth II granted all four Beatles M.B.E. medals in 1965, for import revenues from their record sales; John returned his four years later, as part of an antiwar statement. John and the Beatles continued to tour and perform live until 1966, when protests over his calling the Beatles phenomenon "more popular than Jesus" and the frustrations of touring made the band decide to quit the road. They devoted themselves to studio work, recording and releasing albums such as "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "Magical Mystery Tour" and the "White Album". Instead of appearing live, the band began making their own "pop clips" (an early term for music videos), which were featured on television programs of the time. In the late 1960s John began performing and making albums with his second wife Yoko Ono, as the Beatles began to break up. Their first two albums, "Two Virgins" and "Life With The Lions", were experimental and flops by Beatles standards, while their "Wedding Album" was almost a vanity work, but their live album "Live Peace In Toronto" became a Top Ten hit, at the end of the 1960s. In the early 1970s John and Yoko continued to record together, making television appearances and performing at charity concerts. After the release of John's biggest hit, "Imagine", they moved to the US, where John was nearly deported because of his political views (a late-'60s conviction for possession of hashish in the U.K. was the excuse given by the government), but after a four-year legal battle he won the right to stay. In the midst of this, John and Yoko separated for over a year; John lived in Los Angeles with personal assistant May Pang, while Yoko dated guitarist David Spinozza. When John made a guest appearance at Elton John's Thanksgiving 1974 concert, Yoko was in the audience, and surprised John backstage. They reconciled in early 1975, and Yoko soon became pregnant. After the birth of their son Sean Lennon, John settled into the roles of "househusband" and full-time daddy, while Yoko became his business manager; both appeared happy in their new life together. After a five-year break from music and the public eye, they made a comeback with their album "Double Fantasy", but within weeks of their re-emergence, Lennon was murdered by Mark David Chapman, a onetime Beatles fan angry and jealous over John's ongoing career.


Father, with Yoko Ono, of Sean Lennon. An actor named Mark Lindsay Chapman lost the part of John Lennon in John and Yoko: A Love Story (1985) (TV), because he had a similar name (Mark Chapman) as Lennon's killer. Chapman later portrayed Lennon in Chapter 27 (2007). The first instrument he learned to play was the harmonica. Inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Beatles January 20, 1988. He was given his U.S. Resident Alien registration (his "green card") on the bicentennial of the American revolution: July 4, 1976. He was also informed that he would be eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship in 1981. His murder was first announced to the world by U.S. sportscaster Howard Cosell during "NFL Monday Night Football (1970)". According to Frank Gifford, Lennon met Ronald Reagan when both were guests on "Monday Night Football" in the mid-1970s. After appearing on the show, he gave Gifford and Howard Cosell each a complete collection of Beatles albums, which he autographed. In 1974, he and singer Harry Nilsson were ejected from the Troubadour Club in Hollywood by the bouncers, after they both heckled the Smothers Brothers (Tom Smothers and Dick Smothers) onstage. Lennon and Nilsson both sent flowers and an apology to the Smothers Brothers the next day, and Lennon replied to a columnist's speculation that he might have been using drugs, with the confirmation that they'd simply had too many Brandy Alexanders. Widow Yoko Ono's photograph of John's spectacles, bloodstained from day he was fatally shot outside their apartment building in December 1980, sold at auction in London, April 2002 for about $13,000. At a second Christie's auction later in April, two tape recordings of Lennon were also sold. One, from the summer of 1969, was of Lennon making up tunes and telling six-year-old Kyoko about a dwarf who lived in their garden. It sold for $110,000. The other tape, a 25-minute recording of Lennon working on the melody and lyrics for "She Said She Said", contains lyrics never heard in the song's final version. It sold for $85,200. His "In my Life" was played at the funeral of Kurt Cobain. He is one of several famous and tragic figures from history to be featured on the front and back sleeves of rock band Marillion's "Clutching at Straws" album (released 1987). His voice was sampled for the Marillion song "Gazpacho" (from their 1995 album "Afraid of Sunlight"). His death is referred to in the lyrics of the Badly Drawn Boy song "You Were Right". He was preoccupied with the number nine: An avant-garde composition on the Beatles' "White Album" was "Revolution 9", while a solo recording of his was "#9 Dream", a term he gave to a state of enlightenment. He died at 11 p.m. on December 8, 1980 in New York, but in his native England (five hours ahead), it was already December 9. His mother Julia was killed by a drunk driver when John was seventeen; his stepfather broke down at the news, and John had to go with the police to identify her body. (He later named his first son Julian for her, and remembered his mother in the song "Julia", ten years after her death.) His best friend and former band mate Stuart Sutcliffe died from a brain hemorrhage in 1962, when they were both 21; John asked Stuart's mother for the old scarf he'd worn to Art school, and kept it as a memento. Married first wife Cynthia Lennon at the Mount Pleasant Registry Office in Liverpool; married second wife Yoko Ono on the Rock of Gibraltar. Besides re-releases of his music, his presence has remained in the marketplace and media through selections from his writings and drawings, including a line of children's products based on creations made for son Sean. Although his music with and after the Beatles usually featured the latest technical and sound innovations, he was all-thumbs when it came to most audio/visual equipment, and usually depended on a knowing technician or assistant to give him the sound or look he wanted. He also spent little time on remixing with his solo records; latter-day remasters of his solo albums have been carefully remixed, bringing out many subtleties in the music buried or lost in the original mixes. His first girlfriend (at age fifteen) was named Barbara Baker; his girlfriend at Art school (before dating Cynthia Powell, later Cynthia Lennon) was named Thelma Pickles. Yoko Ono signed over the royalties of his song "Imagine", in perpetuity, to Amnesty International, a world-wide organization devoted to political prisoners. He was voted as a solo artist as the 38th Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artist by "Rolling Stone". The Beatles were voted the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artists of all time on the same list in the magazine. Danish rock band Dizzy Mizz Lizzy is not only named after a famous Beatles song (written by Larry Williams), but included on their second album "Rotator" was the song "11.07pm" honoring the memory of lead singer Tim Christensen's greatest songwriting inspiration. Kept his old bow-tie from Quarry Bank School, and wore it for special occasions as an adult. Also had a favorite necktie that he wore every day to court in the mid-1970s, during his immigration hearings, and later during a lawsuit brought against him by publisher Morris Levy. The Beatles experimented with names throughout 1959. At one point they were called "Johnny and the Moondogs." Another time they turned up to a show in different coloured shirts, and called themselves "The Rainbows". Shares a birthday with fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members 'John Entwistle' of The Who, singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, and also musician P.J. Harvey. The band O.A.R. (of a revolution) wrote "Dakota" off of their album "Stories of a Stranger" in memory of Lennon. His song "Imagine" was performed by Peter Gabriel at the opening ceremony to the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy. In 1969 he recorded the song "Give Peace A Chance" in room 1742, Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montréal, Canada. Norman Mailer, Tom Smothers, and Timothy Leary can be heard as part of the chorus. It was after hearing Paul McCartney's new single "Coming Up" that Lennon decided to return to music in early 1980. His reported response was "Oh shit, I've got to get back." Lennon loved the song. Was the first Beatle to perform solo, appearing in The Rolling Stones's The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (1996) (filmed in December 1968), and also at a concert in Toronto the next year. Was also the only Beatle never to do a solo tour. Tours were planned for 1972 (cancelled because of his immigration problems) and 1981 (cancelled after his death). The only Beatle never to attend a Paul McCartney solo concert. Starr went to one in 1976 and Harrison went to one in 1993. (Both preferred not to go onstage.) Lennon was planning to visit McCartney in New Orleans during the "Venus and Mars" album sessions, but cancelled when Yoko Ono became pregnant with Sean. Was best man at Peter Boyle's wedding to Loraine Alterman Boyle Posthumous winner of the British Phonographic Industry Award for Outstanding Contribution in 1982. The Beatles were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame for their outstanding contribution to British music and integral part of British music culture. [11 November 2004] Amateur photographer Paul Goresh was the last person to photograph Lennon alive, autographing his "Double Fantasy" album for Mark David Chapman, just hours before Chapman fatally shot Lennon. A press photographer sneaked into the morgue, photographing Lennon's body in state before it was taken to be cremated. Is portrayed by Ian Hart in Backbeat (1994). He claimed a disdain for Beatles memorabilia, but privately sent assistants to fan conventions (including the early Beatlefests) to buy interesting or special items. One such trip reunited him with German friend Jürgen Vollmer. Considered showing up at a convention unannounced, just to see the reaction, but never did. Only performed three Beatles songs in concert after the group broke up, "Come Together" in Madison Square Garden in 1972, and "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" and "I Saw Her Standing There" with Elton John, back at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving, 1974. Voted the fifth greatest singer of the rock era in a Rolling Stone magazine poll in 2008. He and the Beatles were awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Best man at Peter Boyle's wedding on October 21, 1977. Boyle's wife was friends with Yoko Ono. Owned several cars in the 1960s, but gave up driving after he totaled his Aston Martin on a trip to Scotland with Yoko Ono, Julian and Kyoko. Ono's back was sprained; the rest of them required stitches. Lennon and Ono later mounted the wrecked car on a pillar at Tittenhurst Park. May Pang learned to drive when she and Lennon were living in Los Angeles, so they could travel together along the California coast. In a 2007 interview on the BBC Radio program Desert Island Discs, his wife, Yoko Ono, revealed what his last words were. She said that he wanted to go home and see son Sean before he went to sleep rather than go out for dinner after leaving the recording studio. According to Ono: "I said 'Shall we go and have dinner before we go home?' and John said, 'No, let's go home because I want to see Sean before he goes to sleep.'" Moments later, he was gunned down in front of the historic Dakota building where the family lived in New York City. Portrayed by Aaron Johnson in Nowhere Boy (2009).