Picking just the right gift for a friend can be tough. One of George Harrison’s most remarkable choices went to Michael Palin: the only Academy Award Harrison ever won, with the Monty Python star’s name scratched into it.
Olivia Harrison told the story to Conan O’Brien as she discussed The Third Eye: Early Photographs, a collection of George’s personal photos from 1963 to 1970 that she curated. The book, released Oct. 6, gathers more than 200 images alongside essays by Olivia, Colm Tóibín and George Saunders.
“He gave his Oscar away to Michael Palin,” she said. “He scratched Michael’s name on it because he loved Michael Palin.” She recalled George’s words as he handed it over: “Here, why don’t you have it? You really deserve this.”
The trophy dates to the Beatles’ final days as a band. The group won Best Original Song Score for Let It Be at the Academy Awards on April 15, 1971. None of the four attended, so Quincy Jones accepted the award on their behalf.
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Harrison’s had a deep connection with Palin. When the original backer of Monty Python’s Life of Brian pulled out less than a week before filming, Harrison mortgaged his house so his comedian friends could make the movie. Palin later said that when he asked Harrison why he took the risk, the answer was simple: “I just wanted to see it.” The company Harrison formed, HandMade Films, went on to make Time Bandits, which Palin co-wrote, along with The Missionary and A Private Function, both starring Palin.
Olivia made clear that the Oscar was part of a pattern. George gave his Beatle boots to Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats and lent the fuzzy coat he wore on the Let It Be rooftop to a nanny who was cold. His rosewood Telecaster went to musician Delaney Bramlett, though she said that guitar eventually came back to the family. O’Brien, a self-described guitar geek who once toured Friar Park, the Harrison estate, joked that he should have been around when George was handing things out.
The Oscar found its way home too. “Michael took it home and after George died, he gave it back, which was very sweet,” Olivia said. Harrison died of cancer on Nov. 29, 2001, at 58. A year later, on the first anniversary of his death, Palin joined fellow Pythons onstage at the Concert for George, the tribute Olivia helped organize.
Nearly 25 years after his death, Olivia said walking the grounds at Friar Park still brings back his humor, down to a sign he planted in the grass reading “Don’t keep off the grass.” “I just feel his presence so strongly,” she told O’Brien. “I’m laughing most of the time because I think of things that happened.”
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