Victor Spinetti

Just the day after Paul McCartney celebrated his 70th birthday, a landmark that served only to emphasise the passage of time, a link to The Beatles' past and perhaps more significantly, to John Lennon was sadly lost with the news of the death of Victor Spinetti at the age of 82.

Spinetti’s name isn’t as synonymous with The Beatles as say George Martin but his name is written large across Beatles history all the same. He appeared in the first three Beatles films; ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, ‘Help!’ and ‘Magical Mystery Tour’.

Spinetti and John Lennon

The story goes that we have George Harrison’s mum to thank for Spinetti being cast in ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, with Harrison being attributed to have said; “You’ve got to be in all our films. If you’re not me mum won’t come and see them because she fancies you.” Harrison would also say; ”You’ve got a lovely Karma, Vic”, while Paul McCartney described Spinetti as being “the man who makes clouds disappear”.

Spinetti’s lust for life was such that it prompted John Lennon to declare, when someone offered Victor a joint, “Don’t waste it on Vic, he’s permanently stoned on fucking life.”

Victor Spinetti’s relationship with The Beatles though wasn’t just limited to staring in three of their movies. In particular he had a close relationship with John Lennon. While John occupied a bed next to a pregnant Yoko Ono in Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in November 1962, it was Spinetti that smuggled in cigarettes, Craven A rather a more exotic weed, for John.

It was Victor that collaborated with John on a stage adaptation of Lennon’s ‘John Lennon: In His Own Write’, which was initially ear marked to be performed at Glasgow’s Citizen Theatre but was in fact staged at the National Theatre in London. On the morning of the premiere a gift of a large rubber elephant appeared at Spinetti’s flat, where he and Lennon had spent much time working on the stage adaptation, complete with a note saying ‘I’ll never forget Victor Spinetti says John Lennon.”

It would be wrong, of course, to simply focus on his relationship with The Beatles when recounting Victor Spinetti’s long and successful career. He starred in over 30 films, has a string of TV credits to his name and in the theatre directed productions of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and ‘Hair’.  

A popular man, his death today prompted many tributes including one from Rob Bryden who described Spinetti as “The funniest story teller I've ever met and a lovely warm man."

Victor talking about John Lennon, Hard Day's Night etc at London Beatles Day in March 2010