The cast for Sam Mendes’ The Beatles – Four Films project is expanding. The biopic saga, with an installment for each one of the Fab Four, was previously confirmed to star Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr.
It was announced yesterday (October 8) that four-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan will play Linda McCartney, Paul’s wife. Now, sources have told Deadline that Mia McKenna-Bruce will be playing Ringo Starr’s first wife Maureen Starkey in the Beatles movies. Mckenna-Bruce has appeared in Last Train to Christmas, Persuasion, and The Witcher.
McKenna-Bruce is also a recipient of the BAFTA Rising Star award. Her forthcoming projects include starring opposite Natalie Dormer in the drama series The Lady and leading the 1920s crime series The Seven Dials Mystery. Portraying Starr’s wife means that McKenna-Bruce will likely be working the closest with Barry Keoghan on the film that focuses on the drummer’s experiences.
Keoghan himself is well-established in the industry at this point, known for The Banshees of Inisherin, Saltburn, and The Killing of the Sacred Deer. Furthermore, the back-to-back casting announcements of McKenna-Bruce and Ronan mean we may soon be hearing who will be portraying other former and current partners of the band’s members.
An old child from Liverpool, Starkey left convent school at the age of 14 to become a hairdresser and started frequenting the Cavern Club in her early teens, known for hosting the Beatles, where she met Richard Starkey, a.k.a. Ringo Starr. The couple married in 1965, with the first of their three children born shortly after. They divorced in 1975.
Starkey married Isaac Tigrett in 1989 and had one daughter with him. Starkey passed away a few years later, in 1994, following being diagnosed with leukemia. Paul McCartney’s song “Little Willow” was written in her memory.
Due to the Cavern Club’s significance in the Beatles’ rise to fame, the movies will probably give some focus to their time performing there, with Starkey and Starr’s meeting interwoven into the narrative. Starkey may not feature as much throughout the rest of The Beatles – Four Films, but this still marks a high-profile achievement in McKenna-Bruce’s career.