I cannot believe no one has commented on this former member of the Monkees, He was born Peter Thorkelson of Norwegian ancestry, the son of a respected economics professor at the University of Connecticut, John Thorkelson but later shortened it to Tork. He excelled in school but later flunked out twice at a small but prestigious Carlton College in MN, which was his father’s almer mater…ouch!. After resettling in Greenwich Village, NYC, he began playing as a folk artist there. Later he moved to L.A., as most all successful rock musicians had to do to get noticed, where he became friends with a not-yet -well-known Stephen Stills. The latter had unsuccessfully tried out for a group/band which was being manufactured by two Hollywood producers to capitalize on the success of The Beatles' Hard Days Night. Being told he had bad teeth, he recommended Peter try out for it which he did, was accepted & ‘The Monkees’ was born. Having met George Harrison in L.A. (during one of The Beatles' U.S. tours) through Mama Cass Elliot whose sister Peter was dating, The Monkees were touring England when they officially met The Beatles, whereupon George invited him back to his home. While there, they jammed a bit & G.H. told him he was working on an album & film based on Indian music & asked Peter to play a bit of banjo on it, which he later did, but George obviously wasn’t too impressed as his part didn’t make it on the Wonderwall album but was in the film.
Unfortunately, as is often the case, The Monkees phenomenon as a successful TV show was short-lived & since two of them, Mickey Dolenz & Davy Jones, didn’t actually play their instruments on any of their four multi-platinum albums, the band itself had no future, so he left Hollywood, & moved to northern CA. He continued to involve himself in music there, actually joining a choir & even taught high school for 3 years. He was out of the limelight for a long time until the inevitable “reunion” for The Monkees was arranged, but it too was short-lived; Peter eventually died at the age of 77 from cancer.