Mostly known is the funny one, the goofy one of the pre-fab four with his curly locks, Micky came into his world as George Michael Dolenz Jr. in March 8, 1945, the eldest of four to actors George Dolenz and Janelle Johnson in Los Angeles, CA. His Italian-born father was already a veteran actor who starred in the 1950s TV series "The Count of Monte Cristo" where he's best known and his mother acted briefly but gave it up to raise a family. Micky also had three younger sisters, Gemma, Deborah and Gina. The oldest sister Gemma (whom he nicknamed Coco) being only two years younger than him was very close to Micky as children and they would often create songs to sing together. Micky started his show business career as a child actor, starting to take screen tests at the age of six and got a role in a movie but it ended up being canceled. A year later he was diagnosed perthese disease and his acting career was put on hold as he had to have his legged strapped for a year. By the age of ten, he got his first big break when in 1956 he was cast in the lead role of a television series titled "Circus Boy" under the name Micky Braddock. In the series, he plays an or-phaned kid named Corky, who grows up in a circus during the turn of the century. For the part, he has his hair dyed blonde and is given a pet elephant named Bimbo with whom he toured around with and sang songs. The series ended after two seasons in 1958 and Micky's status as a child star were over although he made brief stints of a few TV shows.
He then went on to graduate from high school and enrolled in San Fernando College and experienced tragedy. His father died on February 8, 1963 at the age of 55 and Micky would soon drop out of college and take a job as a mechanic for Mercedes Benz for a year. Micky's mother remarried in 1965 to a minister, Dr. Robert Scott and they soon moved to San Jose but Micky stayed behind in L.A. where he went to Architecture school while he occasionally answered ads for small parts on television. At the school, Micky soon met a few musicians and they formed a rock n' roll band called "Micky and the One Nighters" ( later called The Missing Links) with Micky as their lead singer and guitarist and soon left school to tour around with his new band playing at nightclubs performing different tunes from Jerry Lee Lewis to The Rolling Stones. He even recorded a single "Huff Puff/Don't Do It" that wasn't released until 1967. He eventually left the band and continued to audition for TV shows and in 1965 the then twenty-year old got the biggest break in his life when producers Bert Schneider and Robert Rafelson cast in him in the role for a TV series that would make him famous about four struggling rock n ’roll musicians “The Monkees”. He was cast as the drummer of the band despite being a guitarist with no experience playing drums. Although the band took turns singing leads, Micky who was considered having the best singing voice sang lead on majority of their songs unusual for a drummer.
As the clown of the pre-fab four on the TV series, Micky became an instant heartthrob and the second favorite member of the band among teenage girls next to Davy Jones with his offbeat goofiness and singing style. He sang lead on their most popular hits including “I’m A Believer”, “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone”, “Last Train To Clarksville”, “The Girl I Knew Somewhere”, “Pleasant Valley Sunday” etc. Despite less experience playing drums, Micky was able to bluff his way through their performance while managing to learn enough drum-ming for the group’s concert tours but still left all the drumming to professionals for the subsequent tracks. During his Monkees years, Micky had some of his family involved in his business with his mother watching over his money so he’ll have some left over and his sister Coco making a few demos with him. Micky also showed his songwriting skills writing sever-al of the Monkees songs including “Midnight Train”, “Randy Scouse Git”, and “Going Down” which he co-written with his fellow bandmates and sang solo on. Off the set, Micky was the one the brought everyone together often inviting them over to his home in Hollywood Hills.
Although quite girl-crazy who dating several women, Micky met the girl of his dreams on February 1967, while in England when he attended the “Top of the Pops”(A British version of American Bandstand) with fellow Monkee Mike Nesmith to be awarded an gold disc for “I’m A Believer” where he spotted Samantha Juste, a beautiful British fashion model who was announcing records and he was instantly smitten. After a Screen Gems rep introduced her to him they hit it off right away and went out for dinner. After he returned to the U.S. he and Samantha continued their long distance romance flying back and forth from England to America for several months until Samantha arrived in L.A. and moved in with him and even traveled with him to Paris when the The Monkees filmed an episode there. When Saman-tha became pregnant, the couple wed on July 12, 1968 in an outdoor ceremony at Micky’s Hollywood Hills home in Laurel Canyon conducted by his stepfather which family and close friends and fellow Monkees attended. Later on January 8, 1969 they welcomed their daugh-ter Ami Blubelle. During their marriage Micky and Samantha would give wild parties at their home that would last from night till the next morning. After The Monkees TV series canceled and their feature film “Head” bombed at the movies, Micky continued on in the band as trio since Peter Tork left while Samantha opened up a boutique with fellow Monkee wife Phyllis Nesmith. When Mike left the group later that year, he continued on with Davy as a duo and their album “Changes” was released but it wasn’t as successful and in late 1970 Davy and Micky parted ways.
With his Monkees years over, Micky continued some acting throughout the 1970s mostly doing voice-overs for animated series and stints on television shows as well as few feature films. He even tested for the role of Fonzi on “Happy Days”. He also started a solo career singing hits like “A Lover’s Prayer” and “To be or Not To Be”. His marriage was starting to strain do to the wild parties at his home and drug abuse and even infidelity that Samantha took Ami and left and they divorced in 1975. That same year Micky teamed up with fellow former Monkee Davy Jones and two of the Monkees songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart to form Dolenz, Jones, Boyce& Hart and began touring all in and out of the country singing old Monkees tunes and even making an album. They even did a TV special “Great Golden Hits of The Monkees in mid-1976 directed by Micky and released in 1977. Also in late 1976 Micky and Davy were reunited briefly with Peter Tork to record “Christmas Is My Time of The Year” and “White Christmas” which would be released for fan club members later that year. In 1977 “Dolenz, Jones, Boyce&Hart went their separate ways and Micky soon returned to touring solo and even remarried to his second wife, Trina Dow that year.
By 1978, Micky went to England where Davy had accidentally ran into singer/songwriter Harry Nillson who had written some of the Monkees songs who had approached Davy about starring in Nillson’s musical play “The Point”. When Davy had insisted on Micky getting a part too, both Micky and Davy appeared in the play and a soundtrack was made. Micky had planned on staying for only three months in England but would remain for twelve years. While in England, Micky turned to directing as a career. He had already gotten some direct-ing experience when he directed and written the final episode of “The Monkees” series and had directed a few commercials including some NASA spots. He made his directing debut in the BBC drama “Story Without A Hero”. Then he was introduced to an agent named Linda Seifert who offered to find him some work as a director and soon he found a job directing an episode of a BBC series “Premiere”. Soon he found more directing work including a new comedy series “Metal Mickey” in 1980 about a robot. Other shows he directed included “No Problem”, “Luna”, “Fernwood Tonight" with actor Martin Mull and a few episodes of former fellow Monkee Mike Nesmith’s TV show “Television Parts”. He also continued performing solo concerts in the early 1980s touring in different countries. In between, Micky managed to have a family with Trina when their first daughter Charlotte Janelle was born on August 8, 1981. Two more daughters followed, Emily Clair on July 25, 1983 and Georgia Rose on September 3, 1984.
In 1986 when Monkeemania returned, Micky re-joined with Davy Jones and Peter Tork for the Monkees 20th anniversary and toured all over. They even recorded some three new songs for the Monkees album “Then and Now: The Best of The Monkees” and made a new album titled “Pool It!” new brand new songs and did few music videos. He also managed to appear of on a few TV shows. When the Monkees reunion tour ended in 1989, the guys when their separate ways and by the early 1990s, Micky moved back in U.S. and returned to doing solo concerts. He had made two children’s albums “Micky Puts You To Sleep” and “Broadway Micky” which some of is daughters provided back up vocals. His marriage to Trina became strained due to the constant touring and they divorced in 1991. He also started working on his autobiography along with Mark Bego and in September 1993 he released “I’m A Believer: My Life of Monkees, Music and Madness”. The following year he provided vocal back up for Peter Tork’s solo album along with Mike Nesmith and starred on the stage musical “Grease”. That same year he joined up with Davy Jones for a “Together Again” tour which lasted for a year. Also he continued directing and acting on TV shows including “Boy Meets World” and “Pacific Blue” as well as voice-overs for animated series and even starred in “The Brady Bunch Movie” along with Davy and Peter few other films. He also showed of is art skills when he started up painting and had his first art show in Philadelphia, PA in 1995.
By next year when Monkeemania arrived once more for the Monkees 30th anniversary tour, he re-joined his fellow bandmates once more and toured around. Then with Mike Nesmith back on board, all four of the members headed for the studio to record their latest album “Justus” which was their first album with all four members since 1968. Early the following year, they then filmed their TV special “Hey, Hey It’s The Monkees” which aired in February. That March all four members toured in the U.K. but before returning to America Mike un-expected dropout without notice and they toured as a trio for another year and by 1998 went their separate ways again. Throughout the rest of the 1990s, Micky kept himself busy con-tinuing to paint and show off his work as well as directing, producing and appearing on TV, voice-overs for cartoons and appearing in a few feature films and his music career. He’s done solo concerts and duets with his sister Coco and once replaced Davy Jones for “Teen Idol Tour” which had Bobby Sherman and Peter Noone. Also, under his own label he released “Demoisdelle, a collection of his demos spanning decades ago.
By the 21st century, Micky reunited once more and possibly final time with Davy Jones and Peter Tork for the Monkees 35th anniversary tour in May of 2001 and toured all over but by late August Peter left due some tension among the group and his devotion to his own band so Micky and Davy continued on as duo as they did over three decades ago. By late 2002 they parted ways again. That same in on September 20, Micky married for the third time to his then girlfriend Donna Quinter at an outdoor ceremony where all his daughters and Davy Jones attended. The following year he toured again performing favorite Monkees hits and rock n’ roll classics. Also that year he joined the touring company of Tim Rice and Elton John’s musical “Aida” where he was cast in the role of the villain Zoser. In May of 2004 the show made debut on Broadway. That same time Micky’s Autobiography released with an updated edition. In 2006, he appeapred in the in the muscial "Pippin" at the Goodseepd Opera House in East Hadden, Conn. Micky’s since continued work on TV and film and even has directed a new comedy sitcom in 2004. In 2005, he was a DJ for a morning radio show in New York. He's also released a children's book called " Gakky Two-Feet . Micky still continues his singing career touring around the world somtimes with is sister Coco. His eldest daughter Ami has followed in her father’s footsteps in acting and has been an accomplished actress since the 1980s.
