(June 23, 1940 – April 10, 1962) was a British artist who, until his sudden death, worked in a style related to Abstract Expressionism. He was a member of The Beatles for two years, and is often credited for naming the band (after Buddy Holly's band The Crickets). He is sometimes referred to as "the fifth Beatle". He was born in Edinburgh, Lothian, and brought up in Huyton, Merseyside. He attended Prescot Grammar School, and was himself a schoolteacher's son.While Sutcliffe was a gifted painter who showed great promise, and had personal charisma and looks comparable with James Dean's, his musical skills were not remarkable. Sutcliffe became a Beatle mostly because of his friendship with John Lennon, whom he met while studying at the Liverpool College of Art. Lennon convinced him to buy a bass guitar (choosing a Höfner President) with the money he had made from the sale of one of his paintings. He was very uncomfortable on stage and usually played with his back to the audience, which also hid his poor talent. His musical style was elementary, mostly sticking to root notes of chords. (An example of Sutcliffe's bass playing with the early Beatles is the track "Cayenne", on the Anthology 1 album. Regarding Sutcliffe's musical talent, it should be noted that Bill Harry, founder and editor of the Mersey Beat newspaper, contended in a recent interview that Sutcliffe was a competent, if not brilliant, bassist, and that accounts of his musical ineptitude were exaggerated. Pete Best has expressed similar views. [1] Nevertheless, Sutcliffe's importance to the group came from his artistic rather than musical talent. His sense of style, influenced by his lover Astrid Kirchherr, contributed to The Beatles' early "look." He left The Beatles to pursue his career as an artist before they achieved their success, and to marry Kirchherr. Paul McCartney, previously second lead guitarist in the group, replaced Sutcliffe on bass. Months afterwards, in the spring of 1962, Sutcliffe died from a cerebral hemorrhage; after collapsing in the middle of an art class, he was taken to a hospital, but died in the ambulance. It has been claimed that his death was the result of a beating sustained in Liverpool while still a member of the group, but it is more likely to have been a hereditary condition. Lennon later said that he was profoundly affected by his friend's death.