Peter Coyote Transferred to SF State for the Weather, Then Became Icon

MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY -- He’s performed admirably in films, stage and TV roles (and lots of voice-over narration), including Pedro AlmodOvar’s “Kika,” ”Law and Order” and Ken Burns’ “The National Parks.” But there’s more to him than the camera suggests. The longtime Bay Area resident was born Rachmil Pinchus Ben Mosha Cohon in New York City in 1941, but was inspired by a peyote hallucination, and medicine man Rolling Thunder, to change his name. Thus, Peter Coyote was reborn. Why did you leave the Iowa Writer’s Workshop for San Francisco State University? “It was 20-degrees below zero for three weeks. I thought I was going to kill myself.”