On This Day in 1962, the World Lost the Founding Fifth Member of the Beatles, Whom John Lennon Called His “Alter Ego”

Long before the suit-clad Beatles were making their American television debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, the rough-and-tumble lads from Liverpool were cutting their teeth in nightclubs around their hometown and beyond, including a lengthy stint in Hamburg. There were familiar players there, certainly: John, Paul, and George. But this era of The Beatles—truly its earliest carnation—also included Stuart Sutcliffe, the artist-turned-bassist whom John Lennon would later call his “guiding force.”

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Sutcliffe met Lennon while they were both studying at the Liverpool College of Art. The young men hit it off, developing a deeper friendship and eventually moving in together around 1960. By this point, Lennon had already begun playing skiffle music with a young Paul McCartney. To McCartney’s chagrin (he later said he felt envious of Lennon and Sutcliffe’s bond), Lennon invited his roommate to join their musical ensemble.

Thus, Lennon, McCartney, Sutcliffe, the youngest of the group, George Harrison, and a rotating cast of drummers began playing music as The Silver Beatles—a name that Sutcliffe helped ideate. For the rest of 1960, this group played lengthy sets in German nightclubs and honed their sound as a band. But this lineup would prove short-lived, first by personal preference and later by unforeseen tragedy.

Stuart Sutcliffe, the Fifth Beatle, Died at Only 21 Years Old

Although Stuart Sutcliffe was a visual artist first and foremost, he grew comfortable enough on stage to draw attention with his nightly cover of Elvis’ “Love Me Tender”. However, his first calling eventually drew him back into the visual arts world, and Sutcliffe left the band in 1961. Paul McCartney took up Sutcliffe’s position on bass, which is how he ended up with his iconic Hofner viola bass model. (Sutcliffe originally picked it out for himself.) And for the most part, everyone was happy pursuing their art form of choice.

Sadly, Sutcliffe wouldn’t have long to explore his career as a painter. After complaining of headaches and light sensitivity for months, he collapsed on April 10, 1962. An ambulance tried to rush him to the hospital in time, but he died before they made it. Medical personnel determined his cause of death to be a cerebral hemorrhage. Sutcliffe was only 21 years old. On a broader, historical scale, he also died before getting to see his former bandmates realize their true potential as a rock band.

Interestingly, some historians have speculated that Sutcliffe’s brain injury originated during—or, at the very least, was worsened by—a brawl following a band gig at Lathom Hall. Sutcliffe had fractured his skull in the altercation but refused treatment.

According to Larry Kane’s Lennon Revealed, John Lennon’s second wife, Yoko Ono, said that “during their fourteen years together, hardly a week passed when John didn’t refer to Stuart as an almost alter ego, a spirit in his world, a guiding force.”

The Beatles paid tribute to their former and founding member five years after his death by including him on the album artwork for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Photo by Collect/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images