How tall was Jim Morrison - Page 3

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Average Guess (65 Votes)
5ft 10.53in (179.1cm)
anon said on 5/Aug/07
John Densmore, the Doors' drummer, mentions Jim Morrison as being 6' tall in his book "Riders on the Storm."
Steve said on 29/Jun/07
What about Jim Morrison's hero Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones. How come he's not listed. I believe he was said to be 5'6".
Remi said on 15/Apr/07
About 5'9.5" seems to be the concensus here. I would agree given all the pics I've seen over the years.
spiderknut said on 11/Mar/07
the salient quotes from the rock biogs,i think ,are from the aforementioned Life Death Legend,which pegs him at 5.9,BUT no-one has mentioned that there is a book called Feast of Friends,in which people reminisced first hand about him,and one friend ,i distinctly remember,said "..and Jim is NOT a big guy..",then quoting a weight in pounds "dripping wet"-(presumably this means when he just came out of the pool?)it may be rare,but someone surely can find this amongst you Doors freaks..
Jim had many talents but telling the truth was definitely not one of them.
AAAA said on 25/Feb/07
I am actually a huge doors fan... i have seen TONS of pics of him... the 3 in boots ar a bit of a tale. He wore cowboy boots with 2" in heels, but since the heels are slanted in, and the 2" is the slant measure, the true lift they give you is like 1.8 in. He did have some out there beatle boots, but I doubt that they had 3" heels. They were the same as the cowboy boots. And he typically wore fryes.
curious said on 16/Feb/07
I didn't know cowboy boots had a 3" heel. I thought 1 3/4" max.
BILL said on 12/Feb/07
Jim Looks tall, probably due to the 3" cowboy boots AND the fact that he was very lean in his early lizard king days...a lean person ALWAYS appears taller than a stout person. personally i have cowboy boots and the put me at 5'11".So a 145' person at 5'9" wearing 3" inch heels would make the person APPEAR OVER 6'.
Steve said on 19/Jan/07
In one of Jim's biographies, I read that when Jim left Alexandria, where he graduated from high school, his height was 5'8.75". Since then, while he was in college, he had been stretching himself to make himself taller, and he said that he'd grown over an inch since, which makes him about 5'10".

Also, when Jim stood next to Ray, who says he's 6' in his autobiography and sometimes wears boots, you can see Jim is a couple of inches shorter. Robbie, who is said to be about 5'9"-5'9.5", at times wears boots & when he stands next to Jim they look the same height.

Finally, in Patricia Kennealy's book, she met Val Kilmer, who is 6' and played Jim in The Doors movie, and she said that Val is 2" taller than Jim.

So I say Jim is no more than 5'10" tops.
Lmeister said on 17/Jan/07
I've also read that 5'8.75'' height from official bio and that he hated his height + tried to strech himself...
Glenn said on 15/Jan/07
Yeah,I was fooled with 5-11 too.
Anonymous said on 14/Jan/07
mmmm...lots of info that he's much shorter than 5'11". Rob - where's the 5'11" source from? I also read that he tried to stretch himself cause he was only 5'8".
Glenn said on 14/Jan/07
I know people that met him and have proof.they say its possible he was 5-9ish.
Austrian said on 13/Jan/07
yeah right, and i met Jesus in 20 AD and he was 5'10 tall in sandals

anyways, as for Morrison:

he was 5'11

no more, no less
Anonymous said on 6/Dec/06
he was 5'10.5 cuz i met him in 1968 in the beach and he wasnt wearing his boots
peppermint miniskirts said on 1/Dec/06
Of all the heights in the Doors' Elektra bio, I think only Manzarek was honest - 6' appears accurate. However, Morrison, who claimed he was 5'11", frequently wore boots with 2 or 3 inch heels and still looked a couple of inches shorter that Manzarek who usually wore sandles or dress shoes. This would put Jim closer to 5'9.5" - 5'10". Also, John Densmore's claim of 5.9" height appears greatly exaggerated. I would put him 5'7" tops. Krieger was probably 5'7.5."

So maybe 5'9.5" is the accurate height for Jim?
Joe said on 30/Nov/06
In the official Elektra bio Morrison is listed as 5'11 (we all know the lizard king had a penchant for exaggeration though). Krieger is listed as 5'9, Densmore 5'9.5 and Manzarek 6'. Now something is a little off because Densmore is actually the shortest of all four and I've seen some pictures where Morrison and Krieger appear to be about the same height.

I've also read a couple books where the authors mentioned that Kilmer was noticeably taller than Morrison. Since Kilmer is about 6' I think the tallest Morrison could've been was 5'10.
SLINGER 58 said on 30/Nov/06
A friend on mine who's 6'1" has had the opportunity to hang out with Jim's fill-in Ian Astbury who bears a strong presence and resemblance to Morrison. He says that Astbury is 5'9" or 5'10". This similarity in height would contribute to the often made comparison of Ian to Jim. I believe the old girlfriend recollections of Jim being taller are simply hero worship run amuk over the years.
Dee said on 5/Nov/06
In Patricia Keneally's book on The Lizard King, she says that Jim was tall, which appealed to her because she was tall herself; so presumably he was at least a few inches taller than she was, and I think she said she was around 5'8". Also, the surviving Doors seem to have been under the impression that Jim was around six feet tall, judging from comments they were said to have made when visiting his grave the first time. (Related in the book "No One Here Gets Out Alive" by Hopkins and Sugerman.)

I haven't seen many photos of Morrison with other celebrities, so it's hard to judge; but he looked a bit shorter than keyboardist Ray Manzarek (who I think is over six feet tall), and a couple/few inches taller than both guitarist Robbie Krieger and drummer John Densmore. I don't think Krieger and Densmore are very short, so 5'11" or 6" seems about right.

I don't know if he wore cowboy boots all the time, but even if he did, that would not make a difference of 3" because the boot heels are about 2", compared to 1" for standard men's shoes.
Lmeister said on 3/Nov/06
the Lizard King was 5'8.75''
Glenn said on 17/Sep/06
Had no clue.but thats seems to be true.5-9 it is.
Brad said on 16/Sep/06
He wore 3" boots 90% of the time. 5' 9" on the nose.
Anonymous said on 7/Aug/06
max, where did you find that information?
max said on 7/Aug/06
there is no way he was 5'11". ive done a report on him and i found that he was about 5'9"
Robert Lewis said on 5/Aug/06
I've read that while in college he hated the fact that he was only 5'8, so he actually tried to stretch himself(various techniques I guess)to actually increase his height. This was in some book I just forget which.
Ramiro said on 28/Jun/06
Rob, why is listed Morrison at 5'11'' when it looks like he never was that tall? What is the source?
Anonymous said on 13/Jun/06
I think he was 5'9'' with out shoes and 5'11'' with them so in pictures he looked only a little shorter than ray 6'1'' but a little shorter
Joe said on 26/May/06
Chris, how do you know for sure he was 5'9??
Chris said on 26/May/06
Mr. T - Your father is right. He was about 5'9'' barefoot. In his cowboy boots maybe 5'11''.
Mr. T said on 15/May/06
My father saw The Doors in concert in the late 60s and said Morrison looked 5'9-10". If the 5'8" claims are accurate he may have been wearing cowboy boots that night.
Anonymous said on 25/Apr/06
Ray has a myspace account and says he's 6'1"
Chris said on 18/Apr/06
Ray Manzarek is 6'½''and looked definitely taller than the others.
Joe said on 13/Apr/06
I think Manzarek is usually listed at 6'0 but I could see 5'11.
mcfan said on 12/Apr/06
I thought he looked 5'10. I'm surprised Manzarek was 6'1 as pointed out by Anonymous below. I thought he was only 5'11.
Joe said on 8/Apr/06
I think Morrison is another tough one to pin down b/c of proportions. I think he can look 5'11 in some pics but I have seen a pic taken later in his life after he had put on some weight and he didn't look tall at all. Here are a couple of comments by two authors that I find interesting: In his book "The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison," Jerry Hopkins mentions a couple of encounters with Val Kilmer during the filming of "The Doors." He mentions he had forgotten Morrison was so tall and then says this was Kilmer and not Morrison. Also, in his book "Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend," Stephen Davis comments that Kilmer "played Jim as a too-tall Dionysius" and also states that Morrison was 5'9.

For people to notice a difference in height between Morrison and Kilmer (who is listed as approx. 6') I think there has to be a difference of at least 2-3 inches so perhaps Morrison really was only in the 5'9-5'10 range.
Chris said on 27/Mar/06
He didn't like the fact he was 5'8" and that´s why he wore 3 inch leather boots. Heck, he wrote that his parents were dead, why not write 5'11''?
Glenn said on 27/Mar/06
Wow.I always thought he was 5-11.looks like 5-8 it is.thanks for the info guys.
Anonymous said on 27/Mar/06
5'11", why not? In all pictures of the doors together, he looked only two inches shorter than the Door's keyboardist Ray Manzerek who's 6'1" and the tallest of the Doors. Jim is the second tallest. If Ray had cowboy boots on too, then why say Jim is not 5'11".
Anonymous said on 1/Dec/05
You have to remember he was wearing 3 inch leather boots 90% of the time he was in public. I'm sure the police report did not take that into account.
sonicsoul said on 13/Aug/05
In the biography about Jim Morrison "No one gets out of here alive" the author mentions Morrison didn't like the fact he was 5'8" so while in college he used to stretch by hanging from a pull-up bar and Morrison claims to have stretched his height to 5'8.75". No way he was 5'11." Check out the book. So many of these height measurements are flawed...as is the logic used to calculate them. Unreal but not unexpected.
Issheuhboy said on 7/Jun/05
Here's the Lizard King's driving license:

http://www.80stees.com/products/Drivers-license-Jim-Morrison-t-shirt.asp

We all know this is a kinda shoes-on height, so 5'9/10 seems about right
Joe said on 7/Jun/05
In the book Jim Morrison: Life Death Legend, when talking about Morrison's New Haven arrest, Stephen Davis mentions the New Haven police had listed him as 6' but that he was acutally 5'9.
Michael said on 6/Jun/05
Morrison always looked 5'9" to me.

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