Video: 'Michael Nesmith Of ‘The Monkees’ Dies | 10 News First'

(Wednesday, December 30, 1942) — American musician, songwriter, and actor Michael Nesmith, best known as the quiet member of the pop rock band the Monkees and co-star of the TV series The Monkees (1966–1968), was born Robert Michael Nesmith today in Houston, Texas.

Nesmith attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas, where he participated in choral and drama activities, but enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1960 before graduating.

Video: 'Michael Nesmith Life and Death: A Biography'

After Nesmith’s tour of duty in the Air Force, his mother and stepfather gave him a guitar for Christmas. Learning as he went, he played solo and in a series of working bands, performing folk, country, and occasionally rock and roll.

Nesmith’s band The Monkees was created in the mid-1960s for a television sitcom. Nesmith was the second oldest member of the band, behind Peter Tork who was born Feb. 13, 1942 (The other two members, Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones, were both born in 1945).