He was known as 'the quiet one' during the Beatles' years at the top and quiet he has remained in the three decades since.
That's why yesterday's attack on George Harrison shocked those close to him.
Harrison, 56, was in a stable condition, though in considerable pain, after cheating death in the attack by a lone knife-wielding intruder at his home west of London in which his wife Olivia suffered minor head injuries.
News of the attack revived memories of the death of Harrison's fellow Beatle John Lennon, gunned down by Mark Chapman outside his New York apartment 19 years ago this month.
Unlike Lennon and the other Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, Harrison has lived an almost reclusive existence since the end of the world's most famous rock group.
The Harrisons' estate, Friar Park, is a rambling property in the upmarket Thames Valley. Signs on the walls warn that it is guarded by dogs and camera equipment.
Harrison has jealously guarded his privacy and that of his wife of 21 years, as he has busied himself mainly with business interests.
While his solo career has been patchy, Harrison found an alternative creative outlet when he founded Handmade Films in the late 1970s, producing Monty Python's Life of Brian in 1979 and Time Bandits in 1981.
As the Beatles' lead guitarist, Harrison was content to let Lennon and McCartney enjoy most of the limelight during the heady days of the 1960s.
He did, however, write two of the band's most memorable songs - "Here Comes The Sun" and "Something" - while his interest in Eastern mysticism and Indian music came through on some of the Beatles' later works.
His solo career was highlighted by the massive hit "My Sweet Lord" in the early 1970s. He reappeared on the charts in the late 1980s as a member of the Travelling Wilburys, along with Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne.
Harrison has also built up a fortune which at one point saw him buy an island on the Great Barrier Reef. In 1998, he revealed he had been battling throat cancer and had surgery to remove a lump in his neck, something he said had reminded him of the fragility of life.
"It reminds you that anything can happen... that's the nature of life," he told the tabloid News of the World.
Earlier that year, the three surviving Beatles - Harrison, Starr and McCartney - were reunited for the first time in years at a London memorial service for McCartney's wife, Linda, who died of breast cancer.
Former Beatles producer Sir George Martin said: "George always leads a very quiet life. I can't imagine anyone picking on George. I think they must have just picked on the house".