Short answers, pulled from the story.
Brian Wilson was born on the 20th of June, 1942, at Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, California. He died on the 11th of June, 2025, at his Beverly Hills home at the age of 82. His primary cause of death was respiratory arrest amid sepsis and cystitis.
Brian Wilson co-founded the Beach Boys in the autumn of 1961, when the group debuted as the Pendletones with his brothers Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and Al Jardine. Wilson served as the band's primary songwriter, producer, co-lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist, and by 1963 had secured full production control over their recordings at Capitol Records.
Wilson announced his withdrawal from touring in January 1965 after experiencing a breakdown on a flight from Los Angeles to Houston on the 18th of December 1964, during which he sobbed uncontrollably under career stress. He described the experience as "the first of a series of three breakdowns" and cited exhaustion from carrying the simultaneous roles of writer, arranger, producer, and performer, as well as jealousy of Phil Spector and the Beatles.
Pet Sounds is a Beach Boys album released in May 1966, produced almost entirely by Wilson between January and April of that year. Wilson composed the music, employing jingle writer Tony Asher as lyricist and using session musicians for the backing tracks while his bandmates contributed primarily vocal parts. The album peaked at number 10 in the U.S., but Wilson was "mortified" it had not reached number one.
Smile was abandoned in 1967 due to Wilson's worsening mental health and internal friction within the band. He completed a version, Brian Wilson Presents Smile, which premiered at the Royal Festival Hall in February 2004 and was released as a studio album in September 2004. It debuted at number 13 on the Billboard 200, the highest chart debut for any Beach Boys-related album.
Eugene Landy was a psychologist who treated Wilson under an intensive 24-hour program, first from October 1975 and again from November 1982 onward. He gradually assumed control over Wilson's creative and financial affairs, charging approximately $430,000 annually between 1983 and 1986, and was accused of creating a Svengali-like environment. Wilson's family filed a conservatorship suit in May 1991 and Wilson and Landy's partnership was dissolved that December.