Ringo Starr

"Thomas is a smashing little engine - he's Number One and never lets anyone forget it!"

- Ringo Starr on his storytelling role

Sir Richard Starkey, MBE (born 7July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English drummer, singer, songwriter and actor best known for being the former drummer of the British pop-rock band, the Beatles, and the leader of his own band, the All Starr Band. He was the first narrator for Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, narrating the first two seasons and playing Mr. Conductor on Shining Time Station. He left the show after 1989 to focus on his music career and tour with The All Starr Band.

Filmography
{{Scroll box|

Television

 * "Magical Mystery Tour" (1967)
 * "Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends" (1984-1990)
 * "Shining Time Station" (1989-1990)
 * "The Simpsons" (1991)
 * "Shelly Duvall's Bedtime Stories" (1992)
 * "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" (1998)

Films
}}
 * "A Hard Day's Night" (1964)
 * "Help!" (1965)
 * "Yellow Submarine" (1968)
 * "Candy" (1968)
 * "The Magic Christian" (1969)
 * "Let It Be" (1970)
 * "The Point" (1971)
 * "200 Motels" (1971)
 * "Blindman" (1971)
 * "That'll Be the Day" (1973)
 * "Son of Dracula" (1974)
 * "Lisztomania" (1975)
 * "Sextette" (1978)
 * "Caveman" (1981)
 * "Princess Daisy" (1983)
 * "Give My Regards to Broad Street" (1984)
 * "Alice in Wonderland" (1985)
 * "To the North of Katmandu" (1986)
 * "Saint Street" (2012)
 * "The Powerpuff Girls: Dance Pantsed" (2014)

Discography
{{Scroll box|

The Beatles

 * "Please Please Me" (1963)
 * "With the Beatles" (1963)
 * "A Hard Day's Night" (1964)
 * "Beatles for Sale" (1964)
 * "Help!" (1965)
 * "Rubber Soul" (1965)
 * "Revolver" (1966)
 * "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967)
 * "Magical Mystery Tour" (1967)
 * "The Beatles (White Album)" (1968)
 * "Yellow Submarine" (1969)
 * "Abbey Road" (1969)
 * "Let it Be" (1970)
 * "Past Masters" (1988) - compilation album set

Solo
}}
 * "Sentimental Journey" (1970)
 * "Beaucoups of Blues" (1970)
 * "Ringo" (1973)
 * "Goodnight Vienna" (1974)
 * "Ringo's Rotogravure" (1976)
 * "Ringo the 4th" (1977)
 * "Bad Boy" (1978)
 * "Stop and Smell the Roses" (1981)
 * "Old Wave" (1983)
 * "Time Takes Time" (1992)
 * "Vertical Man" (1998)
 * "I Wanna Be Santa Claus" (1999)
 * "Ringo Rama" (2003)
 * "Choose Love" (2005)
 * "Liverpool 8" (2008)
 * "Y Not" (2010)
 * "Ringo 2012" (2012)
 * "Postcards from Paradise" (2015)
 * "Give More Love" (2017)

Awards and nominations

 * Won - Oscar Awards - Best Music, Original Song Score, 1971 for "Let it Be" shared with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
 * Won - Grammy Awards - Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special, 1971 for "Let it Be" shared with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
 * Inducted - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1988 as a member of The Beatles with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
 * Won - Grammy Awards - Best Music Video - Long Form, 1997 for "The Beatles Anthology" shared with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Bob Smeaton, Geoff Wonfor, Chips Chipperfield and Neil Aspinall.
 * Won - Walk of Fame - Recording, 2010.
 * Won - Award For Musical Excellence, 2015 - From the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his solo career.
 * Nominated - Golden Laurel Awards - Musical Performance and New Faces, Male, 1964 for "A Hard Day's Night" shared with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
 * Nominated - Golden Laurel Awards - Musical Performance, Male, 1965 for "Help!" shared with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
 * Nominated - British Academy Film and Television Awards - Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles, 1965 for "A Hard Day's Night" shared with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
 * Nominated - Daytime Emmy Awards - Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series, 1989 for "Shining Time Station."

Trivia

 * According to Britt Allcroft, she picked Ringo as the narrator when she heard his voice on television and thought it would relate for children. She denied that it was because of his "Beatles" fame, as Allcroft was not a fan at the time.
 * Before narrating Ringo originally declined narrating the series since he didn't read any of the Railway Series at that time. However after reading the Railway Series he decided to narrate the series.
 * Ringo Starr recorded the narration for the first season in eight days. That includes re-doing four episodes due to the tone of his voice.
 * He also recorded narration for the Ladybird audio books.
 * Ringo Starr returned to voice Thomas in the 2009 Children in Need charity single.
 * He, George Carlin, Alec Baldwin, and Pierce Brosnan have hosted Saturday Night Live and made guest appearances on The Simpsons.
 * He, Radovan Vaculík, Carlos Enrique Bonilla, Jorge Ornelas, Enzo Avolio, Víctor Delgado, Bohuslav Kalva, Daiki Nakamura, Aku Laitinen, Marjolein Algera, Jukka Voutilaninen, Shinobu Adachi, Pasi Ruohonen, Loretta Santini, Olga Hnidey, Don Nemitz, Bin Shimada, Reinder van der Naalt, Ángel Amorós, Gerardo Reyero, Luis Alfonso Padilla, Octavio Rojas, Louise Raeder, Humberto Vélez, Hadar Shachaf Ma'ayan, Chie Kōjiro, Samuel Harjanne, Keiko Toda and Nicolás Frías also worked on "The Simpsons".
 * He and Tracy-Ann Oberman were guests on "The One Show".
 * On the BBC game show "Pointless", when asked who took over narrating the UK version of the series from Ringo in 1991, four out of the one-hundred people remembered that it was Michael Angelis.