Musician Who Helped Form "The Doors" After Chance Meeting at Venice Beach Dies

Musician Ray Manzarek, whose chance meeting with Jim Morrison at Venice Beach led to the formation of The Doors, died today from complications of bile duct cancer. He was 74.

The keyboard player died in a hospital in Germany, surrounded by his
wife Dorothy, son Pablo and his spouse, and three grandchildren. The musician is also survived by brothers Rick and James.

The Chicago native, who moved to Los Angeles to study cinematography at
UCLA, had met Morrison on the Westwood campus while the future Doors frontman was briefly in school there. After Manzarek graduated in 1965, the two met again by chance at Venice Beach, where Morrison showed him a rough version of "Moonlight Drive,'' a song Manzarek liked so much that the two decided to start a band.

Manzarek later met guitar player Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore at a lecture on transcendental meditation, and their addition rounded out the psychedelic rock band, which quickly climbed the charts largely because of Morrison's wild stage persona. Because the band lacked a bass player, Manzarek usually played bass lines on his Fender Rhodes piano. Manzarek, who also met his wife at UCLA, was the oldest in the band and occasionally sang, as well.

Hits such as "Light My Fire'' featured his keyboard playing. Morrison's antics led to his arrest on stage in New Haven, Conn., in 1967, followed by an arrest for indecent exposure in Miami in 1969 and the band's slow dissolution.

Morrison died in Paris in 1971 at age 27.

Manzarek attempted to hold the band together, becoming the lead singer,
but it fell apart and he turned to working with other bands, producing and
filmmaking. In the past decade or so, he had toured with Krieger.

The Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 and
have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where flowers were to be placed this afternoon in Manzarek's memory.

- City News Service

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