Ringo Starr was born on July seventh, 1940 in Dingle, Liverpool. Named after his father, he was the only child of Richard Starkey and Elsie Gleave. The two had met while working together at a local bakery.Starr's parents split up when he was three years old; his mother, Elsie Starkey, married Harry Graves, whom Starr liked and who encouraged his interest in music.
At the age of five, Ritchie started school at St. Silas Infants School, but his school career hit the first of many snags when, at age six, he developed appendicitis. His appendix ruptured resulting in peritonitis and a ten week coma. Elsie was told on several occasions that her boy would not live, but eventually, to the doctor's surprise, he came round and slowly began to mend. After six months, recovery was within sight, but then disaster struck. Ritchie fell out of the hospital bed necessitating an additional six month hospital stay. When he was finally released, Ritchie found that he was very behind in his school work. He couldn't read or write, so a neighbor child, Marie Maguire, was recruited to help teach him. Ritchie never cared much for school, and the fact that he was so far behind didn't help.
In 1957, Starr started his own group with Eddie Miles, which was originally named the 'Eddie Miles Band,' but evolved into 'Eddie Clayton and the Clayton Squares; Clayton Square' was a local landmark and 'Clayton' Eddie Miles' stage surname.
In 1959, Ringo joined a band called Rory Storm and the Raving Texans. It was around this time that Ringo received his nick name, since Ringo used to wear many rings on his fingers. He also decided to shorten his last name Starkey to Starr so that his drum solo act could be billed as “Starr” time. And thus the name Ringo Starr was born. Later the group changed their name to Rory Storm and The Hurricanes. In 1960, the group went over to Hamburg to play at the Kaiserkeller and this was where Ringo became acquainted with The Beatles. In August of 1962, Ringo was asked to join The Beatles and he jumped at the opportunity.
When Ringo first appeared with The Beatles at The Cavern Club, the fans still upset over Pete getting fired, started shouting "Pete forever, Ringo never!" But as things turned out Ringo was perfect for The Beatles and at one time was the most popular member of the group with American fans. He also proved to be more of a natural actor than any other members of the group and received favorable reviews for his performance in "A Hard Day's Night". Because of this, Ringo was placed in the center of the spotlight in The Beatles second film "HELP!".
Ringo married his long-time girlfriend Maureen Cox on February 11, 1965 and the couple were to have three children: Zak, Jason, and Lee. The couple would eventually divorce in July 1975 and Ringo was to marry Barbara Bach. After the group split Starr later scored Top Ten hits with two non-album singles, "It Don't Come Easy" in 1971 and "Back off Boogaloo" in 1972. Starr continued to release albums through 1981, though with diminishing success. His 1983 album Old Wave did not find a U.S. distributor. Starr was also suffering from the excesses of his lifestyle, but by the late '80s he had cleaned up
He acted in several films such as Candy (1968), The Magic Christian (1969) (alongside Peter Sellers), Son of Dracula (1974), and Caveman (1980). He also worked on the children's television series Shining Time Station, it's Christmas special Shining Time Station: 'Tis A Gift and Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. He appeared as himself on the cartoon The Simpsons.