Actor/
musician most famous as a member of
The Monkees.
He started out at the age of 10 on the
TV show "
Circus Boy," under the name "Micky Braddock" (his mother's
maiden name), because his father, George Dolenz, was an actor on the show "
The Count of Monte Cristo" and did not want his son to seem to be riding his coattails. (In a Monkees episode where the band visits the circus, Micky hums the
theme music from his old show to himself in a few scenes.)
As a teenager, Micky played guest parts and learned to play guitar, but when he auditioned for the Monkees, he was cast as a drummer and had to learn a new instrument. Like Davy Jones, he considered himself more of an actor than a musician and was less interested in controlling the Monkees' music than his bandmates Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork. He did a lot of lead vocals and did write some songs (notably "Randy Scouse Git"). He also directed the most interesting and psychedelic episode (and the last one in the series' run) "The Frodis Caper," also known as "Mijacogeo."
After first Tork and then Nesmith left the band, the two non-musicians kept recording but with little success. Eventually they broke up, and Micky went back to acting and then to directing. He's done some reunion tours with the Monkees but generally is a director now.