Brian Samuel Epstein (19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967) was a British businessman, talent manager, and impresario who rose to prominence as The Beatles‘ manager in the early '60s. His untimely death at the age of 32 played a tragic role in the band’s career trajectory, resulting in a lack of representation that led to their dissolution in 1970.

In 1960, back in Liverpool, he was simply the local record store owner, with a quiet military background that completely contrasted his affinity for theatre and his closeted homosexuality. Though extremely fastidious about his work life and appearance, as well as notably polite and reserved, he could also be clumsy or naive; he developed what would become a fatal drug habit and famously cost The Beatles a fortune through faulty deals and mismanagement. Despite this and an increasingly less-than-confidential infatuation with a young John Lennon, the four Beatles maintained complete loyalty for the man who ultimately amounted to much more than just a mentor figure to them.

In a 1997 BBC special on Epstein, Paul McCartney described their rapport:

If anyone was the fifth Beatle, it was Brian.

In 1964, Epstein detailed The Beatles' rise to fame in an autobiography called A Cellarful of Noise.