Surely George's death - or perhaps, the timing of it - was connected to his membership of The Beatles?
It would take a lot to convince me that the knife attack he suffered at the end of 1999 didn't contribute significantly to hastening his demise within two years.
And that attack was, like John's, the result of being a Beatle. I recall some typically droll quip from George himself along the lines of "this sort of thing never happens to The Rolling Stones!"