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Ray Manzarek, the co-founder and keyboardist of The Doors, passed away on Monday, May 20, in a clinic in Rosenheim, Germany. He was 74. According to the band's official Facabook, Manzarek died after a long battle against bile duct cancer. His wife Dorothy and brothers Rick and James were on his sides during his passing.

Manzarek's bandmate Robby Krieger said in a statement, "I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of my friend and bandmate Ray Manzarek today. I'm just glad to have been able to have played Doors songs with him for the last decade. Ray was a huge part of my life and I will always miss him."

Manzarek formed The Doors in 1965 with Jim Morrison. The band's formation included drummer John Densmore and Krieger as the guitarist. The band played around Los Angeles and made a debut album a year later. The Doors sold 100 million albums worldwide during their career. Their ground-breaking songs include, "Light My Fire", "The End", "L.A. Woman" and "Hello, I Love You". According to Rolling Stones, the group got the credit for most of the band's songs and shared profits evenly.

The Doors disbanded in 1973, following Morrison's death in 1971. Manzarek told the magazine in an interview in 2006, "Without Jim, everybody started shooting off in different directions. The Doors was the perfect mixture of four guys, four egos that balanced each other. There were never any problems with 'You wrote this' or 'I wrote that.' But [after Jim died] the whole dynamic was screwed up, because the fourth guy wasn't there." Manzarek kept working in the music industry after the split, creating two albums with a rock band Nite City and six solo albums.

Besides a wife and brothers, Manzarek is survived by a son and three grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family requested mourners to donate in Ray Manzarek's name to a cancer research foundation.