Olivia Harrison

Olivia Harrison
In April 2009
Born	Olivia Trinidad Arias May 18, 1948 (1948-05-18) (age 63) Mexico City, Mexico
Nationality	Mexican/British
Known for	"Beatle wife"
Spouse	George Harrison (m. 1978-2001) (deceased)
Children	Dhani Harrison

Olivia Trinidad Arias (born May 18, 1948, Mexico City, Mexico), a.k.a. Olivia Harrison, is the widow of George Harrison, former member of The Beatles. They were married on September 2, 1978 and had one son together, Dhani Harrison.

Biography

She is the daughter of dry-cleaner Esiquiel Arias and his wife Mary Louise, who worked as a seamstress. She has brothers named Ron and Gilbert and sisters named Chris and Linda. Olivia attended Hawthorne High School in Southern California and graduated in 1965. She later worked as a secretary at A&M Records, where George Harrison happened to hold a recording contract. Olivia attended Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach's wedding in 1981 without her wedding ring, giving rise to speculation that her marriage to Harrison was a hoax. This was not true: her parents attended their private wedding ceremony at the Henley-on-Thames Register Office in England. Harrison's brothers at Friar Park were not invited. Harrison always referred to her by her maiden name, Arias, on all his original albums and even named her "my wife Arias" in a Musician Magazine article, circa 1991.

Humanitarian work

Olivia, together with Beatles' wives Linda McCartney, Yoko Ono, and Barbara Bach, has been involved with the Romanian Angel Appeal since the early 1990s, which has raised millions of dollars to provide aid for children living in devastation. She reveals her concerns for the Romanian orphans in this quotation (from her appearance on "Wogan", transmitted 22 June 1990): "It was sort of a gradual assault on my conscience. It was slowly wearing away at me and I decided that perhaps we should try to raise some money...I went to Romania and was just overwhelmed, devastated and shocked by the situation."

Olivia Harrison produced the Concert For George in her husband's memory in 2002. The concert at London's Royal Albert Hall was sold out and featured many musicians such as Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Billy Preston, Ravi Shankar, Ringo Starr, and many more, including the first worldwide exposure of her son Dhani. Profits from the event went to the Material World Charitable Foundation, an organization set up by George Harrison. Olivia Harrison received a Grammy Award in 2005 as a producer for the music video of the show in the Best Long Form Music Video category.

Beatles and George Harrison legacy

Harrison appeared on-stage at Microsoft's June 1, 2009, E3 press conference with Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to promote the The Beatles: Rock Band video game.^[1]

She was co-producer of Martin Scorsese's George Harrison: Living in the Material World, sitting for interviews and contributing material to the project and appearing with Scorsese at Cannes in 2010 and in New York City summer, 2011, to promote the documentary. It is scheduled to be shown in the United Kingdom and the United States in October, 2011. Harrison was first convinced to try collaborating with Scorsese after, in 2005, she saw his No Direction Home documentary about Bob Dylan. Nigel Sinclair, the third co-producer of the Harrison project with Scorcese, and Sinclair's company Spitfire Pictures, set up a production team at Friar Park, the Harrison estate, scanning and digitizing materials Harrison was reluctant to have leave the premises.^[2]

References

1. ^ Radosh, Daniel (2009-08-11), "While My Guitar Gently Beeps", The New York Times: MM26, 2009-08-16, ISSN 0362-4331, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/magazine/16beatles-t.html?pagewanted=9, retrieved 2009-08-26 
2. ^ Itzkoff, Dave, "Within Him, Without Him" (limited free access), The New York Times, September 23, 2011. Retrieved 2011-09-25.

External links

• Profile on Beatles History
• IMDB Profile
• Beatle Fact Files prolife
• "The break-in at Friar Park: news roundup"

Persondata
Name	Harrison, Olivia
Alternative names
Short description	Widow of George Harrison
Date of birth	May 18, 1948
Place of birth	Los Angeles
Date of death
Place of death