Michael Nesmith

Michael Nesmith was an American actor, musician, and producer.

Nesmith first came to public notice with the 1960s group The Monkees. Chosen out of hundreds of young actors and musicians to be one of the "pre-fab four" for the NBC television show, Nesmith joined Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Micky Dolenz in the Emmy winning comedy series.

Although the band started out recording songs by such established songwriters as Neil Diamond, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Neil Sedaka and others, with studio musicians doing much of the playing, Nesmith fought for the group to start recording their own songs and playing their own instruments on their records. The band also toured the world, becoming international stars.

After the series was cancelled in 1968, the group starred in their only film, Head.

Nesmith went on to form the First National Band, which released three albums, and later the Second National Band.

In 1974, Nesmith founded Pacific Arts Productions, which, along with producing albums of Nesmith's and others' music, began producing videos to go along with the songs. Nesmith produced a series called PopClips, which ran on Nickelodeon for six episodes and became the basis for MTV.

Nesmith also produced direct-to-video success Elephant Parts. He later created a summer series called Television Parts in 1985.

Pacific Arts also produced feature films, including Repo Man, Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann, and Tapeheads.

In his later years, Nesmith returned to the stage with his Monkees cohorts, first with all four Monkees, then after the death of Davy Jones with Tork and Dolenz, and finally with Dolenz after Tork's death.

Nesmith died December 10, 2021 in Carmel Valley, California. He was 78.