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Micky Dolenz
After selling more than 65 million records worldwide as the star of THE MONKEES TV show, Micky Dolenz has continued to make his mark in other areas of the entertainment business, through his varied career as an actor, director, producer and performer.
Micky was born in Los Angeles on March 8, 1945. His dad, George, had starred in a number of films and in the mid 1950s in the television series "The Count of Monte Cristo." Micky first established himself as a performer at age 10 when, under the stage name of Micky Braddock, he starred in his first TV series, "Circus Boy," which aired on NBC from 1956-1958.
In his teens, Micky guest-starred on a number of television shows and also learned to play guitar.
"I was singing hard rock including songs by the Rolling Stones and the Animals," he says. "In fact, I auditioned for THE MONKEES singing Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode."
The Monkees audition took place in autumn 1965. Micky was one of four actors chosen out of 400 applicants who responded to a trade ad announcing auditions for a new TV show about rock 'n roll band. The concept was inspired by the Beatles film, "A Hard Day's Night."
"I was hired as an actor to play the role of a singing drummer," Micky recalls. "I had to learn to play drums."
The Monkees debut single, "Last Train to Clarksville," featured Micky on lead vocals, hit the charts September 10, 1966 and rocketed to number one. Two days later, the television show debuted on NBC to great success.
The TV ratings remained high for two seasons and Micky and the band starred in their own feature, "Head," a 1969 psychedelic romp written by a young Jack Nicholson. The movie is now considered a cult classic.
Ultimately, The Monkees achieved their greatest success as recording artists. Their first four albums (The Monkees; More of the Monkees; Headquarters, and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.) reached number one on the charts and they had three consecutive number one singles: "Clarksville," "I'm a Believer" (with lead vocals by Micky) and "Daydream Believer." The group's first five albums also went gold.
After the television show, Micky continued his acting career and also did voice-over work for some animated series.
In 1977, Micky flew to London to star in Harry Nilsson's West End Musical, "The Point." He planned to stay three months but remained for 12 years. During that time, Micky honed his behind-the-camera skills (which he first practiced by directing episodes of "The Monkees") by becoming prominent producer-director for the BBC and London Weekend Television. He also directed a feature film, "The Box," written by Micheal Palin and Terry Jones of Monty Python, and helmed numerous music videos.
"I had the best of both worlds," he explains. "It was great to have the opportunity to work in two very different forms of the same medium, the commercial and the non-commercial, and fuse the best of each into something unique…a new style, a new approach."
When Micky returned to the U.S., he continued his directing career with projects for the Disney Channel and Harmony Pictures, among others.
In 1986, MTV broadcast episodes of The Monkees show and exposed a whole new generation to Monkeemania. Micky and Peter Tork recorded new tracks for Arista Records and the single, "That Was Then, This Is Now," became their first Top 20 record since 1968. Micky, Peter and Davy Jones subsequently reunited for a 1986 summer tour that was so successful it sparked the reissue of all The Monkees' classic LPs as well as Pool It on Rhino Records. At one point in 1987, there were seven Monkees albums on Billboard's Top 200 LP's Chart.
In 1996, The Monkees again joined together this time for a "30 Year Reunion" summer tour around America. The response was such that they toured again the following year, this time finishing up in England.
More recently Micky has spent more time behind the camera, including directing for the Michael Jacobs Production ABC/Disney hit TV show Boy Meets World, staring Ben Savage which aired earlier this year.
Davy Jones
Davy continues to ride and train his beloved racehorses to be winners. In 1996, he won his first race in England on his prized horse, Digpast. "I've always thought if all the show business success hadn't happened, I'd have been a world champion jockey. It's in my blood. I've always dreamed of going back to England — riding a few winners," he says.
Davy was born in Manchester, England on December 30, 1945. He began entertaining at 11 years old as Ena Sharples' grandson on the still-running BBC soap opera, Coronation Street. His performance was so memorable, theatrical agents sought him out as he was working as an apprentice jockey in Newmarket and took him to London where he portrayed Dickens' mischievous Artful Dodger in the West End production of Oliver! Later, at the age of 16, Davy found himself the toast of New York where he originated the Artful Dodger role on Broadway and was nominated for a Tony Award.
As a result, Davy was offered a contract with Columbia Pictures/Screen Gems Television, and The Monkees was created shortly after. "Ward Sylvester, the executive producer of The Monkees, was my manager at the time. We looked for different types of guys to be part of his idea for this TV show," Davy says. "Then Micky, Peter, Mike and I were put together in one scene and everyone said, 'That's it ... magic! We'll use you four!" Also a musical group, The Monkees' album sales surpassed all records, and they continue to be best-sellers 30 years later.
The theater remains in Davy's blood. Coming full circle in "Oliver!", he most recently received raved reviews for starring in the complex role of Fagin. He has also starred in productions of The Boyfriend, Harry Nilson's The Point, and appeared as Jesus in Godspell, which played in London's West End . Perhaps the most celebrated television appearance in Davy's long career as a heartthrob is The Brady Bunch episode, "Getting Davy Jones." Not only was he Marcia Brady's dream prom date, but the episode is on e of the most frequently aired reruns in television history. As a result, Davy reprised that role in the 1995's "The Brady Bunch Movie".
Davy is also an accomplished writer and humorous storyteller. He recently completed the second edition of his autobiography, Davy Jones: Daydream Believin', which updates his life and career to the present. Davy's talents extend to short stories, poetry, and photography. Davy also teaches seminars throughout the country where he gives motivational speeches and converses on many subjects including his diverse experiences in show business as well as techniques used in all aspects of entertainment.
A regular on the charity sports circuit, Davy's proudest effort for charity was a successful completion of the London Marathon in 3 hours, 40 minutes. Combining all facets of his diverse talents, Davy sees himself as both a Daydream Believer and a cowboy. Recounting the first time he rode a horse, he says, "A lot of people call me 'Cowboy'. But the first time I was on horseback, I had a lump in my throat the size of my fist, and my heart was almost bouncing me out of my saddle. However, as I grew used to it on that ride, I thought, 'Oh, my God, it's going to happen ... I'm cantering!' And I've been a cowboy ever since."
Peter Tork
Peter Halsten Thorkelson (born February 13, 1942), better known as Peter Tork , is an American musician and actor.
He was born in Washington, D.C. and began studying piano at the age of nine, and showed an aptitude for music by learning to play several different instruments, including the banjo and acoustic and bass guitars. Tork dropped out of college and moved to New York City, where he became part of the folk music scene in Greenwich Village during the first half of the 1960‘s. While there he befriended other up and coming musicians such as Stephen Stills, and after both moved to the Los Angeles area Stills suggested Tork audition for a new television series about four pop-rock musicians. Tork got the job and became one of the four members of The Monkees, who ended up being both characters in a television sitcom and a band in their own right.
Tork was the most proficient musician of the four, and though the group did not play their own instruments on their first two albums, after that point he played keyboards, bass guitar, banjo, and other instruments on their recordings. On the television show, he was relegated to playing the “dummy” even though he was actually an intelligent, literate person. After two years of the show, six albums, a movie, and a television special, Tork had had enough and quit the group, striking out on his own with a group called “Release.” This new band never achieved success, and problems with drugs including alcohol led to his leaving show business entirely for a few years while he taught school and coached basketball. Finally in 1980 he quit drinking and the next year gave up drugs, and in 1986 he rejoined fellow-Monkees Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz for a 20th anniversary reunion tour. Since then he has intermittently toured with his former bandmates and also played with his own bands The Peter Tork Project and Shoe Suede Blues as well as in solo performances and with touring partner James Lee Stanley.
Mike Nesmith
AKA Robert Michael Nesmith
Born: 30-Dec-1942
Birthplace: Houston, TX
Gender: Male
Religion: Christian Science
Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Musician, Film/TV Producer
Level of fame: Somewhat
Executive summary: Monkee
Military service: U.S. Air Force
Michael Nesmith was the guitarist in the first manufactured band, The Monkees. TV executives picked the bandmates from thousands of applicants, and Nesmith and Peter Tork were the only two who actually played their own instruments, at least at first. But even they didn't play much on the band's first two albums, as studio musicians played most of the songs.
The Monkees were criticized as "the pre-fab four," and it especially grated on Nesmith's nerves. He thought of himself as a musician, and went public with the widely-suspected fact that their music wasn't theirs. "The music on our records has nothing to do with us," Nesmith told TV Guide at the height of Monkeemania. "It's totally dishonest. We don't record our own music. Tell the world we're synthetic because, dammit, we are! We want to play on our own."
When the TV show made the Monkees famous enough to exercise their clout, they were allowed to write and record their own music. When they got fairly competent, Nesmith invited media critics to visit later Monkees recording sessions, to prove that they were an actual band.
Nesmith wrote the Monkees' "She," "Mary, Mary," and Linda Ronstadt 's "Different Drum."
In 1967, an unknown band called The Jimi Hendrix Experience opened for the Monkees in concert. They were, said Nesmith, "the apotheosis of sixties psychedelic ribbon shirts and tie-dye, they had pinwheels for eyes and their hair was out to here. I thought, 'Man, I gotta see this thing live.' So that night, I stood in front of the stage and listened to Hendrix at sound check. And I thought, 'Well, this guy's from Mars; he's from some other planet, but whatever it is, thank heaven for this visitation.' And I listened to him play the sound checks and the concert. I thought, 'This is some of the best music I've heard in my life.'"
Nesmith left the Monkees in 1970, and performed "country rock" for years. His Elephant Parts was the first video to win a Grammy, and Nesmith's company was a pioneer in selling home videos of TV shows, including Ken Burns ' The Civil War . That business ended in a messy lawsuit, with Nesmith and PBS fighting in court, and Nesmith won $46-million.
Nesmith produced Tapeheads , an enjoyable movie about videomakers and political scandal, starring John Cusack and Tim Robbins . He also wrote a novel, The Long Sandy Hair Of Neftoon Zamora .
When the original Monkees reunited for a tour in 1996, Nesmith performed with them only once. He thought the reunion tour would be boring, and besides, he was the only one of the four with prior commitments and an actual career.
Nesmith is sometimes called "the stepfather of MTV," because he produced a half-hour pilot for a music video show to be called PopClips . The series was never made, but Nesmith sold the rights to Time-Warner, which tweaked the idea and soon spawned MTV.
And yes, it's true that Nesmith's mother invented correction fluid in 1956.
Father: Warren Nesmith (abandoned the family when Nesmith was an infant)
Mother: Bette (Graham) Nesmith (office worker, invented correction fluid)
Wife: Phyllis Barbour (m. 27-Jun-1964, div. 21-Mar-1975, three children)
Wife: Kathryn Bild (m. 29-Feb-1996, div. 26-Aug-1988)
Wife: Victoria Kennedy (m. 1997)
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