Editing Stuart Sutcliffe (section)

{{Short description|British painter and musician (1940–1962)}}
{{Good article}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2012}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Stuart Sutcliffe
| image              = Stuart stucliffe.jpg
| caption            = Sutcliffe in 1961
| birth_name         = Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1940|06|23|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Edinburgh]], Scotland
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1962|04|10|1940|06|23|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Hamburg]], West Germany
| occupation         = {{flatlist|
* Painter
* musician}}
| years active       = 1957–1961
| partner            = [[Astrid Kirchherr]] ({{abbr|eng.|engaged}} 1960)
| module             = {{Infobox musical artist|embed=yes
  | background = solo_singer
  | origin = [[Liverpool]], England
  | instrument = {{flatlist|
*Bass
*vocals
}}
  | genre = [[Rock and roll]]
  | past_member_of = {{flatlist|
* [[The Quarrymen]]
* [[The Beatles]]
}}
}}
}}

'''Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe''' (23 June 1940&nbsp;– 10 April 1962) was a British painter and musician from [[Edinburgh]], Scotland, best known as the original [[bass guitarist]] of [[the Beatles]]. Sutcliffe left the band to pursue his career as a painter, having previously attended the [[Liverpool College of Art]]. Sutcliffe and [[John Lennon]] are credited with inventing the name "Beetles" (sic), as they both liked [[Buddy Holly]]'s band, [[the Crickets]]. They also had a fascination with group names with double meanings (as Crickets, for example, the word referring to both an insect and a sport), so Lennon then came up with "The Beatles", from the word ''[[Beat music|beat]]'' (though Lennon's original spelling was "Beatals"{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=175}}). As a member of the group when it was a five-piece band, Sutcliffe is one of several who are sometimes referred to as the "[[Fifth Beatle]]".

When he performed with [[the Beatles in Hamburg]], he met photographer [[Astrid Kirchherr]], to whom he was later engaged. After leaving the Beatles, he enrolled in the [[Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg|Hamburg College of Art]], studying under future [[pop art]]ist [[Eduardo Paolozzi]], who later wrote a report stating that Sutcliffe was one of his best students.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/exhibitions/sutcliffe/report.aspx |title=Report by Eduardo Paolozzi, 23 October 1961 |publisher=Museum of Liverpool |access-date=3 January 2017}}</ref> Sutcliffe earned other praise for his paintings, which mostly explored a style related to [[abstract expressionism]].

While studying in [[West Germany]], Sutcliffe began suffering from intense headaches and experiencing acute light sensitivity. In February 1962, he collapsed in the middle of an art class after complaining of head pains. German doctors performed tests, but were unable to determine a cause. After collapsing again on 10 April 1962, Sutcliffe was taken to a hospital, but died in the ambulance on the way. The cause of death was later found to have been a [[brain haemorrhage]]—severe bleeding in the right ventricle of his brain.