R.I.P. Davy Jones of The Monkees dies at 66

He was a year older than I.  Still, he looked very good at his age.  A bit of trivia for you.  Their director (and main man) was none other than Richard  Lester (director of Hard Day's Night), the primary reason for their eventual success.
From the BBC:

He died in his sleep at his home in Florida. His publicist, Deborah Robicheau, said he had a massive heart attack.

The band, who included musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork, were famous for hits including Daydream Believer and I'm a Believer. The Monkees were an American pop band, assembled in 1966.

Jones was married three times and had four daughters.

The Monkees found fame through a successful television series, popular in both the US and the UK, and had four number one albums in a 13-month period. They were famous for their clean-cut image and were marketed as the American answer to The Beatles, notching up nine top 40 hits.

Acting careerThree of the band's original members - Jones, Dolenz and Tork - reunited together last year to play a series of gigs.

He appeared aged 11 on ITV soap Coronation Street, as Ena Sharples's grandson. He also appeared in the television series Z Cars before leaving show-business to train as a jockey.

Davy Jones was the only British member of The Monkees. He came back to acting with a role in a stage production of Oliver! He appeared in the West End and followed the show to Broadway where he built up a career as an actor and singer before auditioning for The Monkees.

Music journalist Paul Gambaccini described Jones as having "phenomenal" charisma and said that in 2008, he was voted the top teen idol of all time by Yahoo! Music. "The pop world at that time loved The Beatles and that north-western English sound was something that America wanted, when they put together the so-called Pre-Fab Four," he said, referring to the nickname given to the Monkees.

Mr Gambaccini said The Monkees had been put together by the music industry, something which was unheard of at that time. "There had been individual teen idols who had been literally picked up off the street and groomed to be popstar, but there had never been a band that was put together, and they were assembled because the two producers had liked A Hard Day's Night, the Beatles' movie."

A spokeswoman for the Medical Examiner's Office for Martin County, Florida, said: "The District 19 Medical Examiner's Office has been informed of the death of Mr Davy Jones.
"The Medical Examiner's Office will take jurisdiction and a possible autopsy will be performed and evaluation of the circumstances of death and medical information."

 And so it goes.
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