Oct. 9, 1940 - Dec. 8, 1980
Lennon was born October 9, 1940, at a time when World War II was raging in Europe. A lot of people thought that Liverpool was under attack by Nazi Germany when John was born, but he was actually born during a lull in the bombing.
His parents separated when he was 3. He was raised by his aunt Mimi from the age of 5.
When John was 17, his mother Julia was struck and killed by a car driven by an off-duty police officer while she was crossing a street in Liverpool, England. The tragedy affected John deeply, and he went on to write several songs about his mother, including
Julia," "
Mother" and "My Mummy's Dead."
His son Julian, who was born in 1963, was from his first wife, Cynthia. He had his son Sean in 1975 with second wife, Yoko Ono. Both became prominent musicians.
John and Yoko co-hosted The Mike Douglas Show for a week in February 1972. The couple brought their subversive counterculture sensibilities to the conventional daytime talk show, inviting an eclectic mix of guests that included comedian George Carlin, social activist Jerry Rubin, and Lennon's musical hero Chuck Berry. Lennon joined Berry to perform two of the rock and roll pioneer's classic songs: "Memphis, Tennessee" and "Johnny B. Goode." During the performance of "Memphis, Tennessee," Yoko began shrieking and making other odd vocalizations, eliciting a shocked expression from Berry.
Lennon appeared naked alongside a clothed Yoko on the cover of the January 22, 1981 issue of Rolling Stone. The photo was taken by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz on the day John was murdered, December 8, 1980. Lennon also was on the cover of the magazine's first issue in 1967 - they used a still from his movie How I Won The War.
He had a cat named Jesus.
Yoko donated many of John's belongings to an exhibit that opened at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex in New York City in 2009. Among the items were the bloodstained glasses he was wearing when he was shot.
On December 8, 1980, Lennon was shot and killed outside the The Dakota building, where he lived with Yoko. Yoko kept living there until 2023, when she moved to a farm in rural Franklin, New York that she and John purchased in 1978.
He was named Rolling Stone magazine's first "Man Of The Year" in 1970. In 1969, he was one of three noteworthy people nominated as "Man Of The Decade" for a documentary of the same name that aired on the British television channel ATV. The other nominees were John F. Kennedy and Ho Chi Minh.
John Winston Lennon was his birth name, with his middle name reportedly chosen in honor of Winston Churchill. In 1969, after marrying Yoko, he legally changed his name to John Winston Ono Lennon. He'd wanted to drop "Winston" entirely from his name, but British law wouldn't allow it. Still, he generally only referred to himself as John Ono Lennon from then on.
During the early 1970s, Lennon was closely monitored by the FBI because of his heavy involvement in political activism. The Bureau compiled a file on John that totaled about 300 pages. The documents are now all available to the public thanks to the Freedom of Information Act.
When Lennon was served a deportation order from the US in 1972, he appealed, leading to a lengthy legal battle. He remained in the country while appealing the case, which he won in 1975. In 1976, he was granted a green card, establishing permanent residency in the US.
Lennon and his Beatles bandmates were presented with prestigious Member of the Order of the British Empire medals by Queen Elizabeth II in 1965. In 1969, John returned his medal to the Queen in protest of Britain's support of US troops in Vietnam, the UK's own involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra conflict and, humorously, his solo single "Cold Turkey" slipping down the charts.
Lennon died on Doors frontman Jim Morrison's birthday.
When he was in art college, he dated a girl named Thelma Pickles.
Lennon was one of many music stars featured in
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, a special filmed for UK television in 1968. In the special, John introduced himself as Winston Leg-Thigh and performed with a supergroup that was put together especially for the show, The Dirty Mac. The band consisted of Lennon on vocals and rhythm guitar, Eric Clapton on lead guitar, Mitch Mitchell on drums and Keith Richards on bass. They played "
Yer Blues," a song from The Beatles' self-titled 1968 album, a.k.a. "The White Album."
Without his glasses on, Lennon was legally blind.
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Suggestion credit:
Sarah - London, England
Lennon was fascinated by the number 9, which recurred frequently throughout his life and work. He was born on October 9, and he incorporated the number into some of his songs, including his hit solo tune "
#9 Dream" and The Beatles' experimental "
Revolution 9." John also spoke about its personal significance, even noting coincidences connected to places like Liverpool. Like John, his son Sean was born on October 9. Although John was killed on December 8, 1980 in New York City, the time difference meant it was already December 9 in his UK birthplace - a detail that only deepened the mythology he himself had helped build around the number.
In 2006, the film The US vs. John Lennon was released. The movie documents Lennon's evolution, between 1966 and 1976, from Beatle to solo artist to social activist. As the film documents, Lennon's antiwar activism brought him under the scrutiny of the Nixon administration and the FBI. In the liner notes to the film's companion soundtrack album, Yoko Ono wrote: "Never in a million years, did we think that promoting world peace could be dangerous. Were we naive? Yes, on that account, we were. John sings: 'Nobody told me there'd be days like these.' That was his true confession. These songs have become relevant all over again. It's almost as if John wrote these songs for what we are going through now."
In his later years, John Lennon became "obsessed with staying skinny," his close friend Elliot Mintz told People magazine in 2024. As Mintz recalled, "John kept a journal where each day he would write what his weight was." Lennon also once phoned Mintz at 4 a.m. and asked him to find diet pills for him, but Elliot didn't follow through. John, who was 5' 11", was estimated to weigh about 135 pounds in 1978.
In a 2002 BBC poll, Lennon was voted #8 on a list of the "100 Greatest Britons." Winston Churchill was voted #1.
May Pang became Lennon's personal assistant when he and Yoko Ono moved to New York City, and she became his lover when John and Yoko were having marital problems in 1973. Pang's romantic relationship with Lennon began when she accompanied him to Los Angeles after he and Ono separated. This period, known as Lennon's "Lost Weekend," lasted for about 18 months, ending in early 1975 when he reconciled with Yoko. Pang claims that she remained friends with John until his death in 1980.
Lennon was 15 when he formed his first band, The Black Jacks. The skiffle group was made up mostly of classmates at Quarry Bank Grammar School in Liverpool. Almost immediately after the band started, they changed their name to The Quarrymen, the group that would eventually become The Beatles.
When the actor Peter Boyle got married in 1977, Lennon was his best man. Boyle's wife, Lorraine Alterman, was friends with Yoko Ono, leading to the actor forming a friendship with John.
May Pang published a book of photos in 2008 called Instamatic Karma. She took the pictures during her 18-month romantic relationship with Lennon in the mid-1970s, known as his "Lost Weekend." A documentary about Pang's romance with Lennon, titled The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, premiered in 2022.
John's last TV interview was in 1975 on the Tomorrow show with host Tom Snyder.
Yoko refused to hold a funeral for Lennon, explaining in 2010, "I did so because I knew his spirit would live forever." Instead, she asked that the world observe 10 minutes of silence in honor of John.
The last photo taken of John Lennon while he was alive had his killer in the frame. Photographer Paul Goresh took a snap of Lennon signing Mark Chapman's copy of John and Yoko's then-new album, Double Fantasy.
