David Johansen, the lead singer of the New York Dolls and last surviving member of the group, has passed away. The iconic frontman revealed last month that he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and has been undergoing intensive cancer treatment for “most of the past decade" and developed a brain tumor in 2020. His daughter Leah Hennessey confirmed that he died at his New York home on Friday (Feb. 28). He was 75.
Johansen was born in Staten Island in 1950 and started his career in the late 1960s singing for the Vagabond Missionaries. He joined the New York Dolls in the ’70s. The band released New York Dolls in 1973 and Too Much Too Soon in 1974 before breaking up in 1976. Johansen launched a successful solo career and opened for the Who.
In the ’80s he began making music under the name Buster Poindexter. He played in the SNL live band and achieved his first hit song with "Hot Hot Hot" in 1987. He embarked on an acting career and appeared in the HBO drama series Oz and the television show The Adventures of Pete & Pete among others, his most famous role being in 1988's Scrooged. In 2023, Martin Scorsese unveiled the Johansen documentary Personality Crisis: One Night Only.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2aQTGqqXHw4
https://youtube.com/watch?v=al0hg1iLcLY
https://youtube.com/watch?v=EhZba-P7R18
