Ray Manzarek, founding member of The Doors, dead at 74

Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist who was a founding member of The Doors, has died. He was 74.

Publicist Heidi Robinson-Fitzgerald says in a news release that Manzarek died Monday at the RoMed Clinic in Rosenheim, Germany, surrounded by his family. He had been stricken by bile duct cancer.

Manzarek founded The Doors after meeting then-poet Jim Morrison in California. The band went on to become one of the most successful rock ‘n’ roll acts to emerge from the 1960s and continues to resonate with fans decades after Morrison’s death brought the band to an end.