Ringo Starr

By comparison with the careers of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison since The Fab Four called it a day in 1969, Ringo Starr's career looks positively lightweight.

There has been much emphasis on good ol' Rock & Roll, most notably on the 1971 smash hit It Don't Come Easy, followed by Back Off Boogaloo, Photograph and You're Sixteen. In addition, there have been several LP's that have all enjoyed success, particularly Ringo (1973).

But the ex-Beatles drummer - born Richard Starkey in Dingle, Liverpool on July 7th, 1940 - felt that one particular direction he wanted to explore was movies, having had a cameo part in the 1968 film Candy, and a more substantial part in Peter Sellers' The Magic Christian in 1970 (apart, that is, from the three Beatles films).

With That'll Be The Day in 1973 - starring opposite David Essex - he gained particular success, although critics later accused him of over-reaching himself with his direction of Born To Boogie, a film documentary about Marc Bolan and T Rex. But through his movies - Caveman specifically - he met his second wife, Barbara Bach.

During the 1990s Ringo began organising a series of concert tours under the name 'Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band', teaming up with well-known musicians to play a selection of his Beatles and solo songs, along with songs made famous by the other musicians in the line-up. The ninth such All-Starr Band tour took place in 2006.

But to a whole generation of kids born long after the 60s, Ringo is probably more famous as the voice of Thomas The Tank Engine which he narrated in 1984, and which has been screened on TV virtually non-stop ever since.

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