Doran first met the Beatles in Liverpool, through Epstein, and sold the band their first car, as well as the van in which they travelled to gigs around the North of England.
He is often cited as the inspiration behind the line "Meeting a man from the motor trade" in the Beatles' 1967 song "She's Leaving Home", although Paul McCartney later denied the story.
Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn describes Doran as "a car salesman with a sharp mind and a ready Liverpool wit".
[6] In exchange for the reasonable terms offered by Doran, Harrison agreed to pose with his bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and the car, in an advertisement for Hawthorne.
[6] The ad appeared in the local Mersey Beat music newspaper in July 1962, at a time when the Beatles' popularity had yet to expand beyond the north of England and the club circuit in Hamburg.
Doran fulfilled this order by having the car delivered to Heathrow Airport as Epstein and the Beatles returned to England after the group's highly successful first American tour.
[13] Starr then spent a day selecting a car before settling on the Facel Vega, which he test-drove by taking it up the M1 motorway at 140 miles an hour.
[12] Among Doran's other sportscar customers were Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, Lionel Bart, and members of the Moody Blues and the Yardbirds.
[10] Following Epstein's death in August 1967, the Beatles decided to manage themselves[15] and hired their friends to serve in key roles in the numerous companies that came to form their Apple Corps business empire.
[24] According to Peter Brown, Epstein's friend and personal assistant, Doran's inexperience was revealed when he inadvertently signed over Harrison's US publishing interests to Melcher, resulting in Apple Records head Ron Kass having to negotiate for their return.
[2] Following the Beatles' retirement as live performers in 1966, Doran was among a select coterie of friends, all from Liverpool or Hamburg, that shared in a bond between the band members that their wives and girlfriends were unable to break.
[39] He was depicted in Hunter Davies' 1968 authorised biography The Beatles as equally adored by Lennon's wife Cynthia and their young son Julian.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Doran joined Beatles aides Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall in contributing percussion to the song "Strawberry Fields Forever".
[45] When Derek Taylor, the Beatles' former press officer, returned from California shortly before the album's release, he and his wife Joan were surprised to be met at the airport by Lennon, Harrison and Doran all transformed in their hippie clothes and preaching an ethos of universal love.
[46][nb 4] In July 1967, the Beatles travelled to Greece with the intention of buying an island in the Aegean Sea and setting up a hippie-style commune.
[2] His friendship with Peter Frampton led to the latter playing guitar on Harrison's sessions with Apple artist Doris Troy,[53] as well as his first post-Beatles solo album, the 1970 triple LP All Things Must Pass.
[57] Boyd said that Doran (whom she called Teddy)[3] was a welcome ally as Harrison insisted on letting families from the Hare Krishna movement live on the estate.
Unlike other members of their inner circle, he refused all offers to write a memoir of his years with the group, and turned down requests to take part in documentaries about them.
Lewisohn did not provide a precise date nor details on the cause of death, but wrote: "Not only the 'man from the motor trade' in She's Leaving Home, also a Scouse pal of Brian Epstein (manager of their Brydor Cars business), mate to all the Beatles, a laugh, joint-roller and merry tripper, ran Apple Music and was George's PA at Friar Park.