Jim Morrison, original name James Douglas Morrison, (born December 8, 1943, Melbourne, Florida, U.S.—died July 3, 1971, Paris, France), American singer and songwriter who was the charismatic front man of the psychedelic rock group the Doors.

Morrison’s father was a naval officer (ultimately an admiral), and the family moved frequently, though it settled down in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, where Morrison attended high school and was a good but rebellious student. He began his college education in 1961 at St. Petersburg Junior College (now St. Petersburg College) in Florida and developed his talents as a performer by reciting poetry at the local Beaux Arts coffeehouse. He subsequently transferred to Florida State University and then to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied film. There he met Ray Manzarek, who played the organ in the rock group that the two formed in 1965 with guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore. They called themselves the Doors, taking their name from Aldous Huxley’s book on mescaline, The Doors of Perception (1954), which was itself titled after a line by William Blake.