Peter Tork

Peter Tork
Tork performing at Family Gras in Metairie, Louisiana in January 2016.
Background information
Birth name	Peter Halsten Thorkelson
Born	(1942-02-13) February 13, 1942 (age 75) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Genres	Folk Blues Rock pop rock psychedelic rock experimental rock rock and roll pop
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter musician artist multi-instrumentalist activist
Instruments	Bass guitar acoustic guitar Keyboards banjo Vocals
Years active	1964–present
Labels	Colgems RCA Bell Arista Rhino Sire
Associated acts	The Monkees Shoe Suede Blues George Harrison James Lee Stanley Release Cottonmouth The Peter Tork Project
Website	www.petertork.com

Peter Tork (born Peter Halsten Thorkelson, February 13, 1942) is an American musician and actor, best known as the keyboardist and bass guitarist of the Monkees.

Tork was born at the former Doctors Hospital, in Washington, D.C. Although he was born in the District of Columbia in 1942, many news articles incorrectly report him as born in 1944 in New York City, which was the date and place given on early Monkees press releases. He is 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 British Isles ancestry. 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. Tork 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.

Stephen Stills had auditioned for the new television series about four pop-rock musicians but was turned down because the show's producers felt his hair and teeth would not photograph well on camera. They asked Stills if he knew of someone with a similar "open, Nordic look," and Stills suggested Tork audition for the part. Tork got the job and became one of the four members of the Monkees, a fictitious pop band in the mid 1960s, created for a television comedy sitcom written about the fictitious band. Tork was the oldest member of the group.