Born on July 7, 1940, on Madryn Street in Toxteth, Wales, Richard Starkey Jr. would become a household name – as Ringo Starr, drummer of The Beatles. But so far as rock music fame goes, you know it don’t come easy.

Starkey’s parents divorced when he was just 3 years old. He was raised in a working-class area of Liverpool by his mother, Elsie, and a stepdad, Harry Graves, whom the boy liked very much and who encouraged his stepson’s interest in music.

The youngster, however, had a childhood filled with long hospital visits, including a bout with appendicitis that resulted in a coma, and a cold that progressed to pleurisy. “Ritchie,” as he was known then, fell far behind in school, and by age 13, had given up on his education.

When he was a teenager, Ritchie became enamored of Liverpool’s “Skiffle” music craze, where folk- and jazz-influenced tunes were often played on homemade instruments like a washboard, saw or comb and paper. In 1957, he started his own group with a friend named Eddie Miles. They went by The Eddie Miles Band at first, then evolved into Eddie Clayton and the Clayton Squares – Clayton Square being a local landmark.

Two years later, Starkey joined a group called the Raving Texans, a quartet that backed singer Rory Storm. It was with this band that he received his nickname, Ringo, because of the jewelry he wore on his hands and because it sounded “cowboyish” to go with the band’s theme. He was tagged with the stage surname “Starr” so that his drum solos could be billed as “Starr Time.”

Ringo Starr initially met up with his future Beatles bandmates – John Lennon, George Harrison and Paul McCartney – while he was performing with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes in Hamburg, Germany, in October 1960. Starr sat in with the group on occasion, in place of original Beatles drummer Pete Best, and when the other three decided to part ways with Best on Aug. 16, 1962, Starr was tabbed to replace him. He became the oldest member of the “Fab Four,” and initially there was controversy, as Best’s fans didn’t take to Ringo right away.

But Lennon knew Ringo belonged in the group. He said as much in an interview later in life, referenced in David Sheff’s book “All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.”

“Ringo was a star in his own right in Liverpool before we even met,” Lennon said. “… Ringo’s a damn good drummer.”

Starr’s influence on the band, and on music, then and forever, has often been subtle. But his skills were unquestioned and the qualities he brought to rock music continue to help the genre evolve even today.

Starr is left-handed, but plays a right-handed drum kit, contributing to a distinctive drumming style, both audibly and visually. As Starr gained in popularity along with the band – not only playing, but co-writing and singing some of the Beatles’ tunes – he forged a new role at the forefront for the musicians who for so long had performed in relative obscurity at the back of the stage.

“Before Ringo, drum stars were measured by their soloing ability and virtuosity,” said Steve Smith, drummer for Journey, when Starr was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame.

Because of Ringo Starr, said Smith, “… We started to see the drummer as an equal participant in the compositional aspect. One of Ringo’s great qualities was that he composed unique, stylistic drum parts for the Beatles songs. His parts are so signature to the songs that you can listen to a Ringo drum part without the rest of the music and still identify the song.”

Smith of course wasn’t the only drummer influenced by Ringo Starr. Max Weinberg of the E Street Band, Dave Grohl of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, Billy Joel’s drummer Liberty DeVitto, Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater and countless other drummers – including Phil Collins of Genesis fame – credit Starr with shaping their own style.

Collins called Starr “Vastly underrated.”

“The drum fills on the song ‘A Day in the Life’ are very complex things,” Collins once said. “You could take a great drummer today and say, ‘I want it like that.’ He wouldn’t know what to do.”

Starr’s drumming wasn’t just technically proficient; it was nearly perfect. English historian and Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn extensively surveyed tapes of the group’s recording sessions and confirmed that rarely during the band’s eight-year recording history did a take break down because of an error by Starr. Usually, Lewisohn found, if mistakes were made during recording, it was by one of the other three bandmates.

He further influenced rock drumming by promoting the “matched grip” style of holding the sticks; by placing his drum kit on risers to achieve greater visibility to the audience during shows; and by tuning his drums lower and using muffling devices on tonal rings. His use of a “sizzle” cymbal brought a much fuller sound than standard “ride” cymbals.

Not all went smoothly with the Beatles, and during recording sessions for the “White Album” of 1968, Starr walked out when he grew tired of bickering between other band members that delayed their work. McCartney laid down the drum tracks for “Back in the U.S.S.R” and “Dear Prudence” while Starr hung out for two weeks on a Grecian yacht with actor Peter Sellers. The drummer wrote “Octopus’s Garden” while on hiatus, but soon returned and the group patched things up.

There were other occasions when the drum tracks on Beatles album were not played by Starr, however. McCartney played drums on “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” recorded April 14, 1969, because only he and Lennon were in the studio to record. And the group’s initial takes of their first single, “Love Me Do,” featured session drummer Andy White, who was booked for the gig by The Beatles’ producer, George Martin, after the removal from the band of Pete Best. Martin said he didn’t realize the other boys had already signed up Starr, so Ringo played tambourine on the song, and maracas on “P.S. I Love You.”

Starr lent his voice to at least one song on each Beatles album, perhaps most notably “Yellow Submarine,” which prepared him for a solo career that was to follow.

The Beatles broke up on April 10, 1970, but Ringo Starr didn’t rest. He had released two albums by the end of the year: “Sentimental Journey” featured his renditions of many pre-rock standards, with production help from the great Quincy Jones, George Martin and McCartney; and “Beaucoups of Blues” put Starr’s skills in an American country music context. Ringo was the first Beatle to score a major solo hit after the breakup, with “It Don’t Come Easy” reaching No. 4 on both the U.K. and U.S. charts. “Back Off Boogaloo” was a No. 2 hit in the States and No. 7 in the U.K. during 1972. Other top hits for Ringo included “Photograph” and “You’re Sixteen,” which both hit No. 1 in the United States, taking the album to No. 2 in America, though the songs only hit No. 8 and No. 4 respectively, and the album No. 7, in England.

Beyond his music, Starr has been involved in acting, and in numerous businesses. He started his own furniture company with designer Robin Cruikshank in 1971, and launched his own record label, called Ring O’Records, in 1975.

On the screen, Starr has appeared in many films and television shows, ranging from several Beatles movies (“A Hard Day’s Night,” “Help,” etc.) to “Son of Dracula” and the farcical 1981 comedy “Caveman.” On the set of the latter film, he met his wife, Barbara Bach. They were married on April 27, 1981, shortly after the movie’s release, and 26 years later are still married and living in Aspen, Colo.

In the 1980s, Ringo also reached a new generation of fans by narrating for the children’s television series “Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends,” and playing the character Mr. Conductor on the American spinoff, “Shining Time Station.” Through the years, Starr has done considerable voiceover work and acting in children’s programming.

Starr’s son, Zak Starkey, born to his first wife, Maureen, is himself a renowned drummer for the British band Oasis and also handles the rhythms for legendary U.K. rockers The Who. Ringo and Maureen also had a second son, Jason, and a daughter, Lee, before their divorce in 1975.

In September 2007, it was announced that Ringo Starr’s name would be on the next ballot for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. He of course has already been inducted as a member of The Beatles, but all three of his mates from that band already have joined the Hall as solo artists, as well, leaving only Ringo to secure the individual honor.