Peter Tork

Peter Halsten Thorkelson (February 13, 1942 – February 21, 2019), better known by his stage name Peter Tork, was an American musician and actor. He was best known as the bass guitarist and keyboardist of the Monkees and co-star of the NBC television series of the same name (1966–68).

Tork grew up in Connecticut, and in the mid-1960s as part of the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York City, he befriended musician Stephen Stills. After moving to Los Angeles with Stills, he auditioned for a new musical television sitcom, The Monkees. The series ran from 1966 to 1968 and made Tork and his co-stars teen idols. In addition to albums released with the band, Tork released on Beachwood Recordings one solo album, Stranger Things Have Happened (1994), and later toured with James Lee Stanley, with whom he also recorded three duet albums (Two Man Band, Once Again and Live/Backstage at the Coffee Gallery), as well as his band, Shoe Suede Blues.

Tork was born at the former Doctors Hospital in Washington, D.C., in 1942, though many news articles incorrectly report him as having been born in 1944 in New York City—the date and location listed in early press releases for The Monkees television show. He was the son of Virginia Hope (née Straus) and Halsten John Thorkelson, an economics professor at the University of Connecticut. His paternal grandfather was of Norwegian descent, while his mother was of half German Jewish and half Irish American ancestry.

Tork began studying piano at the age of nine, showing an aptitude for music by learning to play several different instruments, including the banjo, acoustic bass, and guitar. He attended Windham High School in Willimantic, Connecticut, and was a member of the first graduating class at E. O. Smith High School in Storrs, Connecticut. He attended Carleton College before he moved to New York City, where he became part of the folk music scene in Greenwich Village during the first half of the 1960s. While there, he befriended other up-and-coming musicians, such as Stephen Stills.

In 1965, auditions were held for a new television sitcom called The Monkees, about a fictional pop-rock band called The Monkees. Stephen Stills auditioned but was rejected because the show's producers felt his hair and teeth were not photogenic. When Stills was asked if he knew of someone with a similar "open, Nordic look", Stills recommended Tork. Tork was chosen along with musician Michael Nesmith, actor/musician Micky Dolenz, and Davy Jones (who was already under contract to Screen Gems). Tork was the oldest member of the group.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.