His relationship with Paul has been uneasy and some who know him well say he can be

His relationship with Paul has been uneasy, and some who know him well say he can be curmudgeonly. But his involvement in The Beatles Anthology TV series shows he might have reconciled himself to his past and - before this week's attack - he was said to be working at last on a new solo album.. 1980: John Lennon was shot dead by Mark Chapman in New York. 1981: US president Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest by John Hinkley, a fan obsessed with actress Jodie Foster, who thought he could win her affection by imitating the would-be assassin character Travis Bickle in the film Taxi Driver, starring Foster. 1981: Pope John Paul IIwas shot in the stomach and hand in St Peter's Square by deranged Turk Mehmet Ali Agca.1991: Rebecca Schaeffer, the actress, was shot by a fan, Robert Bardo, at her home in Hollywood.1993: Simon Reynolds, a television cameraman, chased and terrorised Lady Helen Windsor, then threw himself under a train.1993: Monica Seles, the tennis star, was knifed by a man who stalked her rival, Steffi Graf. He has done much for the British film industry, forming HandMade films, which was responsible for Monty Python's Life of Brian and the thrillers Mona Lisa and The Long Good Friday.Still, just what he does day by day remains a mystery. He was the youngest; only 17 when they forged their craft in Hamburg, and 24 when Sgt Pepper was released. After the band split he turned his back on its memory, first describing being a Beatle as "a nightmare", then saying in typical deadpan fashion that if one were going to live, die and be in a rock' n' roll band, it might as well be the Beatles.After the split he became the first ex-Beatle to have a number one hit, with the religious anthem My Sweet Lord.

But the song brought court action amid allegations of plagiarism. He organised a rock landmark - the 1971 concert for Bangladesh in New York - made sporadically good solo albums and helped to form theTravelling Wilburys.He enlivened the 1992 general election by embracing the Natural Law Party and performing to raise funds. Harrison alone retains an interest, just as he alone professes to be as committed as ever to the hippy doctrine of peace, love and brotherhood.Harrison was always the least comfortable with the adulation and screaming that drowned the music, and the most disturbed by fame. It may have meant a few less than memorable sitar-based songs on Beatles albums, but their flirtation with Indian mysticism influenced a generation. ButHarrison's lead guitar helped to forge the group's sound, and his song-writing - marked by respectable but token tracks on the early albums - blossomed."Something" on Abbey Road was described by Frank Sinatra as "the most beautiful love song written in the last 50 years" - even if he did think it was a Lennon/McCartney song.Harrison found his life-changing interest when Patti Boyd introduced him to Indian religion He then introduced the other Beatles to the Maharishi. She was wooed in song by Harrison's (still) friend Eric Clapton, and left one guitarist for the other.Harrison's contribution to the Beatles was always overshadowed by the greater song-writing talents and more extrovert personalities of Lennon and McCartney.

By contrast his first wife, the actress and model Patti Boyd, was instantly recognisable - and their split figures in many record collections. In 1978 he married Olivia Arrias, a Mexican- Californian Catholic who worked as a secretary in his record company They have a son, Dhani, 21. Hunter Davies, the Beatles' biographer, has pointed out that all married foreign women, all America-based. But only reclusive George ensured that his wife would not be recognised by even the most obsessive fan.