Ringo Starr Got Kicked Off a Boat Belonging to Hollywood Royalty for Driving Him ‘Crazy’
In 1968, Ringo Starr acted alongside a number of Hollywood legends in the film Candy. He had very little screen time in the movie, but he still spent a good amount of time on set with the other actors. He said he greatly enjoyed the experience and looked back fondly on all the times he irritated actor Richard Burton. Starr shared what he did to get himself kicked off Burton’s boat.
Ringo Starr met multiple Hollywood stars while filming the movie ‘Candy’
Starr acted in The Beatles’ films, but his first movie without his bandmates was 1968’s Candy. Starr got to know some of Hollywood’s biggest names while on set.
“At the end of the year I was off to Rome to film a movie: Candy — what a great movie,” Starr said, per The Beatles Anthology. “It was the mind-blowing thrill of my life. I was filming with Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, Walter Matthau and all those guys.”
He explained that he was most excited about meeting Brando, but Burton became a good friend.
“Richard and Elizabeth [Taylor] turned out to be really good friends,” he said. “One fabulous thing he did was to read ‘I Am The Walrus’ off the album sleeve in that voice of his. It was just amazing.”
Starr said he liked messing with Burton, making him so frustrated that he’d shout at him to get off his boat.
“We’d go and stay with them on their boat, and that drove Richard crazy,” Starr said. “Because I used to play games with his head. I would say, ‘God, the English language, what a load of crap!’ and he would explode. And I’d say, ‘Shakespeare — give us a break.’ It was just a little game I would play with him, and he’d always fall for it and get angry and send me off his boat: ‘Get off my boat, you little whippersnapper.'”
The start of Ringo Starr’s Hollywood career didn’t give him much screen time
For all the time Starr spent with his Candy co-stars, it seems Starr would have had a significant role in the movie. In reality, though, he had roughly four minutes of screen time. He briefly played a gardener in the widely panned film. Still, he said he had a great time making the movie.
“I loved acting, I really loved it,” he said. “And I loved meeting all those great actors and sitting around and hanging out. They all gave me tips, that was my acting school: ‘Oh, you know, maybe if you did it this way…'”
The Beatle eventually stepped away from acting
While Starr showed promise as an actor, he wasn’t picky enough with his projects. A series of poorly reviewed films tanked his prospects, and he eventually decided to focus on his music career.
“(That) all went downhill, and my recording career went downhill,” he said, per the book Ringo: With a Little Help by Michael Seth Starr. “I was too busy doing other stuff. And I realized that there’s enough actors; I’m a musician.”
