1. Ray Manzarek is best known as a member of the rock band The Doors, co-founding the group in 1965 with fellow UCLA Film School graduate Jim Morrison.
21 Facts About Ray Manzarek
1. 2.
Ray Manzarek was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 as a Doors member.
3.
Ray Manzarek was born to parents of Polish descent, Helena Kolenda and Raymond Manczarek Sr.
4.
Ray Manzarek graduated from the University's College of Commerce with a degree in economics in 1960.
5.
In late 1961, Ray Manzarek briefly enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
6.
Ray Manzarek re-enrolled in UCLA's graduate film program in 1962, receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree in cinematography in 1965.
7.
The Doors lacked a bass guitarist, so for live performances, Ray Manzarek played the bass parts on a Fender Rhodes piano keyboard bass.
8.
Ray Manzarek used a Gibson G-101 Kalamazoo combo organ for the band's later albums.
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Ray Manzarek went on to share lead vocals with Krieger on the albums released after Morrison's death.
10.
Ray Manzarek worked extensively with Hearts of Fire screenwriter and former SRC frontman Scott Richardson on a series of spoken word and blues recordings entitled "Tornado Souvenirs".
11.
Ray Manzarek produced the first four albums of the seminal punk band X, contributing occasionally on keyboards.
12.
Ray Manzarek's second novel, Snake Moon, released in April 2006, is a Civil War ghost story.
13.
In 2009, Ray Manzarek collaborated with "Weird Al" Yankovic by playing keyboards on the single "Craigslist", which is a pastiche of the Doors.
14.
In May 2010, Ray Manzarek recorded with slide guitarist Roy Rogers.
15.
Ray Manzarek removed the 'C' from his surname Manczarek around when the Doors started playing gigs in 1965.
16.
Ray Manzarek married fellow UCLA alumna Dorothy Aiko Fujikawa in Los Angeles on December 21,1967, with Morrison and his longtime companion Pamela Courson attending.
17.
Ray Manzarek practiced Atenism, an ancient Egyptian religion last observed in the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, after discovering it in Sigmund Freud's book Moses and Monotheism.
18.
In March 2013, Ray Manzarek was diagnosed with a rare cancer called cholangiocarcinoma and traveled to Germany for special treatment.
19.
Ray Manzarek performed a private concert for his doctors and nurses.
20.
On May 20,2013, Ray Manzarek died at a hospital in Rosenheim, Germany, at the age of 74.
21.
Ray Manzarek was a huge part of my life, and I will always miss him.