English music producer Brian Epstein was BOTD in 1934. Born in Liverpool to a wealthy mercantile family, he was expelled from various schools. Conscripted into the Army in 1952, he was discharged after revealing his homosexuality to a psychiatrist. He persuaded his family to let him become an actor, and moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. While a student, he was arrested for soliciting sex with an undercover police officer, and sentenced to two years’ probation. He dropped out of drama school and returned to Liverpool, working in the record department of his family’s music store. In 1961, he offered to represent the then-unknown band The Beatles, insisting they abandon their scruffy image and adopt a new clean-cut style, and securing their first recording contract with EMI. In 1962, he reluctantly fired dummer Pete Best at the request of the band, replacing him with Ringo Starr. Global success followed, as he shepherded the band towards mega-stardom. Epstein also managed Gerry & the Pacemakers and Cilla Black, and became a successful theatrical promoter. In his final years, he became addicted to cannabis, amphetamines and barbiturates. He died in 1967 of an accidental overdose, aged 32. Historians and biographers have speculated about Epstein’s crush on and possible affair with John Lennon, despite Lennon’s claims that their relationship was platonic. Epstein was played by David Angus in the 1991 film The Hours and Times, a speculative account of Epstein’s erotically-charged friendship with Lennon, set over a four-day holiday they spent together in Spain.