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Peter Halsten Thorkelson (born in Washington DC Feb 13, 1942 – Feb 21, 2019), better known as Peter Tork, was an American musician, composer and actor, best known as the keyboardist and bass guitarist of the Monkees. He began studying piano at the age of nine, showing an aptitude for music by learning to play several different instruments, including the banjo and both acoustic bass and guitars. Stephen Stills had auditioned for the new television series about four pop-rock musicians but was turned dow...

Peter Halsten Thorkelson (born in Washington DC Feb 13, 1942 – Feb 21, 2019), better known as Peter Tork, was an American musician, composer and actor, best known as the keyboardist and bass guitarist of the Monkees. He began studying piano at the age of nine, showing an aptitude for music by learning to play several different instruments, including the banjo and both acoustic bass and guitars. Stephen Stills had auditioned for the new television series about four pop-rock musicians but was turned down, so he recommended Tork who became the oldest member of the group. Six albums were produced with the Monkees, four of which went to #1 on the Billboard chart. This success was supplemented by two years of the TV show, a series of successful concert tours both across America and abroad, and a trippy-psychedelic movie, Head, a bit ahead of its time. He was married 4 times and has 3 children. In 2009 Tork reported on his website that he had been diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare, slow-growing form of head and neck cancer. He died on February 21, 2019, at his home in Mansfield, Connecticut, from complications of adenoid cystic carcinoma, eight days after his 77th birthday.