Ray Manzarek Wiki, Bio, Wife, Dead and Net Worth

Raymond Daniel Manczarek Jr. is better known as Ray Manzarek was an American singer, musician, producer, author and also, a film director who was born on February 12, 1939 in Chicago, Illinois, the Unites States but sadly, he was found dead on May 20, 2013. His height is 1.84m and ethnicity is American. He is best known as the founding member and also, a keyboardist of “The Doors” from the year 1965 to 1973. He was also a co-founder of ‘Nite City’ from the year 1977 to 1978 and of ‘Manzarek-Krieger’ from the year 2001 until his demise in 2013 at the age of 74.

He was raised and grown up by his parents, Helena and Raymond Manczarek, Sr. he took piano lessons while growing up. He initially wanted to play basketball but only in centre and forward. He attended Everett Elementary School, which was located on South Bell Street and again headed to St. Rita High School in Chicago. He graduated from ‘DePaul University’ with a degree in economics. He also played in various shows at school.

From the year 1962 to 1965, he became a part of the “Department of Cinematography’ and studied the particular topic at the University of California, Los Angeles. There he met a film student, Jim Morrison. He also met his girlfriend, Dorothy Fujikawa, whom he married after dating for a long time. He has a good relationship with his wife so there doesn’t seem to be anything like divorce between them. Information related to his children are not provided but he was not a gay. At that time, he was in a band named “Rick and the Ravens” with his brothers, Jim and Rick. After forty days of finishing film school, they went through separate ways when Morrison and Manzarek met by chance on Venice in California.

Manzarek liked Morrison’s songs like “Moonlight Drive”, “Summer’s Almost Gone” and “My Eyes Have Seen You”. So, he co-founded “The Doors” with Morrison. In January 1966, the doors became a house band in the London Fog. But later they were fired by London Fog and hired by ‘Whisky a Go Go’. The band’s first recording contract was with “Columbia Records”. After some months of live gigs, they signed with Elektra Records.

The band lacked a bassist so; he used to play bass parts also. His signature instrument was ‘Vox Continental Combo Organ’ which is generally used by rock bands of the era. He produced four albums on the seminal punk band called X. In 2000, he established a poetry named “Freshly Drug” with British poet, singer, actor and a pioneer, Darryl Read. He released many other musical albums to the year, 2012.

His net worth was $62 million dollars. He gained his net worth with all his successful songs and his interesting musical life and biography. He has a huge fan following of his unique talent in his musical field and his musical instruments. This can be clearly seen through his social networking media like twitter, Facebook and Instagram. He also used to upload his pictures for his large number of followers. His wiki was preferred by his fans and his death made his fans depressed.