David Johansen, the main versatile and multi-middle singer and last original surviving member of the Seminal Band Proto-Glam-Punk New York Dolls who also found fame in the 1980s and 90s as the recoil singer Buster Poindexter, has died at age 75.
Johansen died Friday afternoon in his room, surrounded by flowers and music and holding hands with his wife, Mara Hennessey, and the stepdaughter Leah, Hennessey confirmed to ABC News.
“We had a wonderful adventure of a life together. He was an extraordinary man. So grateful that we made us public with news of his illness before his death, since the last weeks have been full of messages and love of family, friends, friends, And fans, “Hennessey told ABC News in a statement.
Johansen’s stepdaughter, Leah Hennessey, revealed in February that Johansen had “been in intensive treatment for stage 4 cancer during most of the last decade”, which had spread to his brain five years before. She said that Johansen had also broken her back in two places in a stairs fall the day after Thanksgiving 2024.
David Johansen by New York Dolls acts on stage at the Northern London forum.
Yui Mok/Pa images through Getty Images, Archive
“Due to trauma, David’s disease has progressed exponentially and my mother is taking care of him throughout the day,” Hennessey wrote on the website for the Sweet Relief Musician background, the non -profit beneficial organization that provides financial assistance and another for needy musicians.
“We have been living with my illness for a long time, still having fun, seeing friends and family, continuing, but this falls on the day after thanksgiving really led us to a completely new level of weakening,” Johansen said in a Declaration to Rolling Stone. “This is the worst pain that I have experienced in my whole life. I have never been one to ask for help, but this is an emergency. “
Born on January 9, 1950 in the New York City of Staten Island, Johansen acted with local bands before joining what was then known as The Dolls in 1971 as his singer and composer. Changing its name to the New York dolls, the band caused a unique splash in the New York music scene with its stripped and hard driving sound, along with an androgynous and exaggerated presence on stage with large hair, makeup, high heels, velvet and spandex.
In this archive photo of February 10, 1974, members of the New York Dolls rock band are shown. LR: Arthur Kane, Jerry Nolan, David Johansen, Sylvain Sylvain and Johnny Thunders.
Bettmann Archives through Getty Images
New York dolls never achieved generalized commercial success during the apogee of the 70s and dissolved in 1976 after years of tumults and changes in the staff, having recorded only two albums: “New York Dolls” and “Too Mother Too Toon”, which presented Johansen in the main voices and with most of the written clues or co-written by him. However, despite their abbreviated mandate, New York wrists exerted a fundamental galvanizing and incalculable influence on Punk and Glam Rock, with artists as diverse as Blondie, Aerosmith, Sex Pistols, Kiss, The Clash, David Bowie, Morrissey, Billy Idol, Rem, Joan Jett and many others citing as inspiration.
The visual aesthetics of dolls in particular helped give birth to the metal scene for the hair of the 1980s, with its appearance emulated by bands such as Poison, Twisted Sister and Mötley Crüe.
Although they were never induced, New York dolls were nominated three times for inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: in 2001, 2021 and 2022.
On this February 19, 2016, file photo, singer Buster Poindexter, A/K/A David Johansen, acts at City Winery in New York.
Bobby Bank/Getty images, file
After several years as a soloist, Johansen renamed in the 1980s as the tuxedo and the singer of the Pompadour’s backward room, Buster Poindexter. With his band The Banshees of Blue, he scored a modest success of Billboard Hot 100 with his 1987 version with the Dance song “Hot Hot Hot”, Johansen’s only single.
Johansen recorded four albums as the exuberant Poindexter, becoming the process into a frequent presence in the night interview program. He also acted as Poindexter with the “Saturday Night Live” house for the 1986-1987 season of the program.
Johansen continued in later years to act and record both alone and with several other bands, including his own Blues team, the Harry Smiths, in the early 2000s. He briefly met almost at the same time with the former members of the Dolls of New York, recording three more albums and performing occasional concerts and tours live.
Johansen also enjoyed a career as an actor, including a memorable turn like Christmas Christmas ghost, in the successful “Scrooged” comedy.
David Johansen as the ghost of Christmas past and Bill Murray is shown in a scene of the 1988 film comedy “Scrooged”.
United Archives through Getty Images, Archive
In 2023, the half century of Johansen’s influence in music was held in a documentary Titled “Personality crisis: One Night Solo”, directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi, who presented images of a January 2020 performance of the Johansen cabaret show at Café Carlyle in New York, in celebration of his 70th birthday.
“Vegetarian, heterosexual, gay, whatever,” Johansen said about his legacy in the film’s trailer. “I just wanted to knock down those walls and have a party.”
In this archive photo of December 4, 2009, singer David Johansen presents himself live on stage at the Kentish Town forum in London.
Jim Dyson/Getty images, file
Johansen married three times and divorced twice. His wife, artist Mara Hennessey survived him, with whom he married in 2013, and her daughter.
