Stuart Sutcliffe

Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe 23 June 1940 10 April 1962 was a British painter and musician best known as the original bass guitarist of the Beatles Sutcliffe left the band to pursue his career as a painter having previously attended Liverpool College of Art Sutcliffe and John Lennon are credited with inventing the name Beetles As a member of the group when it was a fivepiece band Sutcliffe is one of several who are sometimes referred to as the Fifth Beatle When he performed with the Beatles in Hamburg he met photographer Astrid Kirchherr to whom he was later engaged to marry After leaving the Beatles he enrolled in the Hamburg College of Art studying under future pop artist Eduardo Paolozzi who later wrote a report stating that Sutcliffe was one of his best students Sutcliffe earned other praise for his paintings which mostly explored a style related to abstract expressionism While studying in West Germany Sutcliffe began suffering from intense headaches and experiencing acute light sensitivity In February 1962 he collapsed in the middle of an art class after complaining of head pains German doctors performed tests but were unable to determine a cause After collapsing again on 10 April 1962 Sutcliffe was taken to a hospital but died in the ambulance on the way The cause of death was later found to have been a brain haemorrhage in the right ventricle of his brain