context: The Beatles gained fame by starting clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg in 1960 and fighting for three years, with Stuart Sixt Cliff playing bass. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, the band's main pillars, used a variety of drummers, including Pete Best, and in 1962 invited them to join the star. Manager Epstein transformed them into professional action, and producer George Martin directed and developed the recordings from their first hit single, `` Love Me Do, '' which helped gain enormous popularity in England in late 1962. The next year, as the Beetlemania grew in the UK, the nickname "fab four" emerged as an international star in early 1964, leading "British Invasion" to the American pop market. Since 1965, Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966), and Sgt. He began producing progressive recordings, including Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles (1968), and Abbey Road (1969). In 1970, the Beatles were dismissed, but members enjoyed different musical successes and continued for different periods. McCartney and Star, the surviving members, continue to perform music activities. Lennon was killed in December 1980, and Harrison died of lung cancer in November 2001.
question: Who was the first member of the Beatles to die?
answers.text: Lennon