Neil Aspinall, a longtime friend and the road manager of The Beatles, died of cancer in New York Sunday night. He was 66 years old.
Aspinall was generally known as "the fifth Beatle" while he ran the group's business empire for 40 years.
Last year, Aspinall was enthralled in a lengthy legal dispute involving Apple Corps, the Beatles' business organization. After just weeks of settling with the Apple computer firm over the use of a trademark, Aspinall resigned as chief executive.
Aspinall's involvement with the Beatles dated from 1960 when the group's original drummer, Pete Best, asked him to become their driver. After Best, Aspinall's best friend, was replaced by Ringo Starr, Aspinall stayed with the band.
While the band's road manager, Aspinall's responsibilities ran the gamut. He was in charge of everything from costumes and their itinerary to protecting them from groupies.
In 1967, after the death of manager Brian Epstein, Aspinall became the group's manager, adding a more entrepreneurial aspect to the group.
In 1995, it was revealed that Aspinall fathered a son in 1962 with the mother of Pete Best, who was 20 years his senior.
In 1968, Aspinall married Suzy Ornstein, the daughter of a United Artists executive who oversaw the Beatles' feature films A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965). She and their five children survive him.
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