John Lennon
1940 – 1980 · United Kingdom
Known for: Beatle, dreamer, peace activist
“You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.”
Biography
A working-class boy from Liverpool who formed a band that became the most influential act in the history of recorded music. With Paul McCartney he wrote the soundtrack of the 1960s; with the Beatles he changed how albums were made, how fame worked, and how far four friends with guitars could carry an idea.
After the band, Lennon turned his celebrity into a megaphone for peace, bed-ins with Yoko Ono, billboards declaring "War Is Over! (If You Want It)", and Imagine, three minutes of piano that became humanity's unofficial anthem of hope. He was shot outside his New York home at 40. Every December 8th, the mosaic that reads IMAGINE in Central Park disappears under flowers.