Richard Starkey was born in the Dingle area of Liverpool on July 7, 1940, into a working-class family and endured serious childhood illness, including a lengthy hospitalization that delayed his schooling. He joined the Beatles in 1962 as drummer, replacing Pete Best, and his understated but inventive playing, along with his affable public persona, helped anchor the band through global Beatlemania and its transformation into rock's most influential recording act.
Ringo Starr's childhood gave little hint of the fame ahead. Sickly from an early age, he spent long stretches in hospital, including a bout of peritonitis at age six that put him in a coma, and later a two-year stay for tuberculosis as a teenager, during which he first started playing drums as part of hospital band therapy sessions organized for patients.
By the time he joined the Beatles in August 1962, Starkey, performing under the stage name Ringo Starr, had already built a reputation as Liverpool's most sought-after drummer with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. His steady, unshowy style, built around a distinctive matched grip and unusual left-handed drumming on a right-handed kit, gave the Beatles a rhythmic foundation that producer George Martin and his bandmates came to rely on heavily.
Starr's warmth and wit made him arguably the most universally beloved Beatle in interviews and films like A Hard Day's Night, and his post-Beatles career, including hit singles and decades of touring with his All-Starr Band, extended a musical life that began, improbably, with therapeutic drumming in a children's sanatorium ward.