Ringo Starr Once Said He Had an ‘Incredible ‘ Experience Watching a Movie Star Look at a Spoon
It probably goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway — Ringo Starr earned his reputation for his impressive drumming skills. It’s not a stretch to say that his talents helped make The Beatles one of the most popular musical groups ever, and the drummer parlayed his music renown into an acting career. Plenty of die-hard fans would lose their cool meeting Ringo, but he once played fanboy and fawned over a movie star looking at a spoon during lunch on a movie set.
Ringo Starr started his acting career while he was in the Beatles
The Beatles made music videos long before there were cable TV channels dedicated to showing them. Ringo and the rest of the Fab Four made video shorts for songs such as “Love Me Do” and “She Loves You” early in their career. Before too long, they graduated from short videos to feature-length films.
The Fab Four made A Hard Day’s Night in 1964. Ringo (fittingly) wore a sought-after ring in 1965’s Help!, which ostensibly made him the star, though a re-watching years later revealed a weird element of the movie for him. Ringo, George Harrison, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney also worked together on Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine movies.
Ringo’s movie career without the Beatles as co-stars began before the band broke up. He scored a role alongside Richard Burton, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, and John Huston in 1968’s Candy. The long-forgotten movie had an impressive cast, but Ringo fawning over one Oscar-winning movie star looking at a spoon during the shoot was one of the most memorable parts of the film.
Ringo called Marlon Brando ‘incredible’ and went wild over Marlon Brando looking at a spoon
Marlon Brando established himself as a cultural icon years before Ringo and the Beatles did. Some of his earliest movies, such as A Streetcar Named Desire, The Wild One, and On the Waterfront, were some of his most acclaimed works.
He earned the first of his two Academy Awards for On the Waterfront. Brando earned five Oscar nominations between 1952 and 1958 and won two Oscars from eight nominations in his career.
Brando was already a cinematic legend when he filmed Candy, and the Beatles’ drummer looked forward to meeting him. During a lunch while shooting the movie, Ringo gushed over Brando looking at a spoon, as he once told British TV host Jonathan Ross (via YouTube):
“Brando was incredible. Incredible, and we became friendly for the two weeks we were together … He was just so good because he was Marlon. We were having this lunch, and he was coming to the lunch, and I was [so excited] he was coming to the lunch because he was a hero of mine. And he came in and did that Marlon stuff. He’d, like, grab the spoon and look at the spoon, and we’d all go [in a fawning way], ‘Ooh, he’s looking at the spoon.’ It was just so great. He’d be hanging on doors — he was just being Marlon.”
Ringo Starr details his incredible experience watching Marlon Brando look at a spoon
Brando earned fame for his performances and notoriety for his version of method acting. On Candy’s set, Ringo Starr had an incredible experience watching Brando examine spoons and lean against doors.
The Beatles influenced movies as well as music
Ringo and the Beatles influenced generations of musicians who followed them. It turns out their sway reached into the movie business, too.
Ron Howard and Peter Jackson both made Fab Four documentaries. Before that, Ringo’s journey to joining the Beatles inspired Tom Hanks to write the script for That Thing You Do. Years before he made his Beatles film, Howard discovered a star for one of his early movies, Night Shift, in the Ringo vehicle Caveman.
He focuses on his music more than movies now, but Ringo Starr had an incredible experience meeting Marlon Brando while making his first non-Beatles movie.
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