Jim Morrison

Born in Melbourne, Florida in 1943, he studied film at UCLA before forming The Doors in Los Angeles in 1965 with Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, and Robby Krieger. His performances as vocalist drew heavily on shamanistic ritual and the writings of William Blake and Arthur Rimbaud. In 1969 he self-published two volumes of poetry, The Lords and the New Creatures, the first described as a thesis on film aesthetics. Light My Fire reached number one in 1967, but it was his confrontational stage presence and dark lyricism that made him a defining figure of the American counterculture. He died in Paris in July 1971, aged twenty-seven.