George Harrison Was ‘Incredibly Rude’ at an Event Celebrating His Company’s Anniversary 

George Harrison had a reputation for being the “Quiet Beatle,” but at an event celebrating his film company’s anniversary, he proved he was anything but quiet. In a speech, Harrison irritably aired his grievances with the film industry in front of a crowd of actors, directors, and producers. According to director Richard Loncraine, the room grew uncomfortably quiet under Harrison’s harsh words. He said that Harrison’s speech was incredibly rude.

George Harrison had a film company

In 1978, Harrison and his business partner Denis O’Brien founded HandMade Films to finance Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Harrison was a fan of Monty Python and wanted to see the movie. Rather than waiting for it to come out and buying a ticket, Harrison played a key role in the film’s creation.

“What happened was that I helped to raise the money for them in order to make the film when the previous backer pulled out,” he told Rolling Stone in 1979. “As I’m a Monty Python fan, I wanted to see the movie – I like to go and have a laugh too – and a friend suggested that I try and raise the money. So we just got a loan from a bank. It’s a risk I suppose.”

HandMade Films also produced Time Bandits, Mona Lisa, and Shanghai Surprise, among others.

George Harrison irritably addressed the crowd at an event honoring his company

In 1988, HandMade threw a party to celebrate the company’s tenth anniversary. Many big names in film attended the event. At some point in the night, Harrison decided to angrily address the crowd. 

“He got up on stage in front of hundreds of people and said how much he hated film people and what arseholes they were,” Loncraine said, per the book George Harrison: Behind the Locked Door by Graeme Thomson. “As the evening almost entirely consisted of film ‘arseholes’ — many of whom weren’t — it was taken a rather dim view of. He called us all a lot of f***ing wankers, used a lot of four-letter words, and the room went very quiet. I think there had been a drop to drink.”

As it turned out, Harrison’s inflammatory speech was his way of announcing that he was going to play music.

“He said, ‘The only people I really care about are musicians, so now I’m going to play some music as it’s my party.’ It was not the most cool or elegant way to behave — in fact, it was incredibly rude,” Loncraine said. “Sadly, that’s my lasting memory of working with George.”

His company went through financial difficulties

Harrison’s anger may have stemmed from the fact that HandMade was dealing with financial difficulties. After hiring an accountant to look into the problem, Harrison learned that he and O’Brien were not, as he had thought, equal partners. Instead, Harrison was financing films on his own while O’Brien collected money from the company. Harrison felt incredibly betrayed.

“He hated [O’Brien] with an intensity that was quite rare for George,” his friend Eric Idle said. “It took him a long time to get over all that.”