After the Beatles were honored with an MBE in 1965, George Harrison said the initials stood for Mister Brian Epstein. Later Paul McCartney said, "If anyone was the Fifth Beatle, it was Brian." The gay, Jewish Liverpudlian had been an acting student at RADA with Peter O"Toole and Albert Finney but quit soon after his arrest for "persistent importuning" at a well-known cottaging site. He was 27 in January 1962 when the unknown John, Paul, George, and Ringo signed a contract for Brian to manage them. With zero previous management experience, he developed their onstage look and demeanor, including their collarless German suits and their signature synchronized bow. More importantly, after every major label in London turned them down, he got them a contract with George Martin at EMI's Parlophone. Epstein also managed several other acts, including Cilla Black ("Anyone Who Had a Heart") and Gerry & the Pacemakers. Fans are divided over whether or not his intense relationship with John was sexual; their famous trip to Barcelona was potrayed in the movie The Hours and Times. In August 1967, while the Beatles were in Wales with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Brian took his usual six Carbitral pills to help him sleep but, mixed with alcohol, the dose killed him. His death, at 32, was ruled accidental. That same summer homosexuality was finally decriminalized in England and Wales. Needless to say, Brian did not discuss his gay affairs in his 1965 autobiography A Cellarful of Noise
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