VARIOUS: FORMER BEATLE GEORGE HARRISON DIES IN LOS ANGELES AGED 58 AFTER LOSING HIS LONG BATTLE AGAINST CANCER

Record ID: 392331

  • Title: VARIOUS: FORMER BEATLE GEORGE HARRISON DIES IN LOS ANGELES AGED 58 AFTER LOSING HIS LONG BATTLE AGAINST CANCER
  • Date: 30th November 2001
  • Summary: SCU: HARRISON KISSES BOYD
  • Embargoed: 15th December 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA4059YEVEVCYR2ESWG0FBX2M6O
  • Story Text: Former Beatle George Harrison has died in Los Angeles at the age of 58 after a long battle against cancer.
    Former Beatle George Harrison has died in Los Angeles at the age of 58 after a long battle against cancer, a family friend said on Friday (November 30).
    He died at a friend's home. His wife, Olivia, and son, Dhani, were at his side.
    Beatle author Philip Hunter said: "Another Beatle gone.
    It's an awful thought -- the group were an entity in people's lives.
    In 1970 Harrison's first wife Patti fell in love with his long-time friend, guitarist Eric Clapton. She finally left her husband for Clapton in 1974, but the two musicians remained friends and Harrison even attended their wedding.
    After the Beatles's demise, Harrison scored remarkable success with the single "My Sweet Lord" and a series of albums reflecting his meditative and philosophical approach to life."
    The youngest member of the world's most famous pop group will always be remembered for his devotion to Oriental mysticism. It was he who persuaded the other Beatles to fly to India and sit at the feet of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
    The group conquered the world with 27 number one hits in the United States and Britain.
    Harrison, always known as "The Quiet Beatle," was just 27 when the band split in 1970.
    The star was treated for cancer in 1997 after he found a lump in his neck.
    He also had surgery for lung cancer in 2001 and was reportedly treated at a Swiss clinic for a brain tumour.
    When Harrison first disclosed that he had been treated for throat cancer, he said: "It reminds you that anything can happen."
    As well as his recent struggle with cancer, Harrison's life was also threatened when he was stabbed by an intruder at his English country home in 1999.
    Harrison's biographer Alan Clayson said: "He was stabbed in the lung, at around the time he was diagnosed with lung cancer. It had a psychological effect on him.
    "After Lennon was assassinated (by a gunman in New York in 1980), he took a very fatalistic view. He was often seen drinking in pubs around Henley where he lived.
    George Harrison was never in any doubt about the cause of the cancer which had hit him twice before, blaming his smoking habit for the lung and throat tumours he had suffered over the past four years.
    ---ENDS--
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