Surviving Beatles Honor ‘Quiet One’

Helmed by Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese, “George Harrison: Living In The Material World” debuted at the British Film Institute Sunday night.  Harrison’s widow, Olivia Harrison, is among the film’s producers. 

Other celebs in the audience included Yoko Ono, Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood and Monty Python’s Michael Palin.

Harrison was a fan of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and co-founded Handmade Films to help fund Python movies such as “Life Of Brian.” The company’s first film was 1981’s “Time Bandits,” directed by Python member Terry Gilliam who co-wrote the screenplay with Palin.

“He would talk the hind leg off a donkey,” Palin said, according to Sky News. “He was quiet in the sense he never pushed himself, he was never particularly interested in the glamorous life and going to premieres – probably all this would freak him out completely. But … certain things which he was particularly keen on, like trees or gardens or (the) world population explosion, he would go on (about) for ever and ever.”

Commenting on Harrison’s rep as “the quiet” Beatle, McCartney noted his former band mate could be quite noisy when the spirit struck him.

“As the film shows he could be quiet but he could be loud too, depending on what mood he was in,” McCartney said. “But he was a great man.”

“George Harrison: Living In The Material World” opens Tuesday in the U.K.