David Johansen, New York Dolls Lead Singer, Dies at 75 Following Stage 4 Cancer Diagnosis

David Johansen has died at the age of 75 after being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Johansen was known for his work as the lead singer of the New York Dolls and his cabaret career as Buster Poindexter.

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David Johansen with the New York Dolls (left); David Johansen in 2022 (right). Photo:

Alan Messer/Shutterstock; Arturo Holmes/Getty

David Johansen, the lead singer of New York Dolls, has died. He was 75.

Johansen's daughter, Leah Hennessey, confirmed that he died at home in New York on Friday, Feb. 28, according to The New York Times and Variety.

Hennessey revealed in February that Johansen had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and that he had a brain tumor.

“David has been in intensive treatment for stage 4 cancer for most of the past decade,” she said. “There have been complications ever since. He’s never made his diagnosis public, as he and my mother Mara are generally very private people, but we feel compelled to share this now, due to the increasingly severe financial burden our family is facing."

Hennessey and her mother also raised funds to pay for his care after he suffered a fall and broke his back.

David Johansen in May 2023.

Matt Winkelmeyer/Deadline via Getty

Later speaking exclusively with PEOPLE about her father, Hennessey said, “He's very, very sick, but he's reading all the messages, and he's getting in touch with people he hasn't talked to in many years. The connection is probably the best thing for him right now — as it is for all of us.”

She continued: “He's totally with us — mentally, emotionally, [but] he's physically incapacitated."

Hennessey added of her parents’ relationship, “Their love is mythological. They are so in love every moment of the day, and it's an incredible thing to be part of and see.”

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Johansen first found success as the lead singer of the New York Dolls, one of the earliest punk bands. He began a solo career in the 1970s, and in the late ‘80s, he began performing cabaret under the name Buster Poindexter, most famously releasing the song “Hot Hot Hot,” which remains a wedding staple.

Johansen was born and raised in New York’s Staten Island in 1950. His father sang opera before he became an insurance salesman, and his mother was a librarian.

Johansen told PEOPLE in 1988 that he “was on another planet” during most of his school years, but he knew from an early age that he wanted to sing. Instead of college, he became part of an avant-garde acting troupe. In the late ‘60s, he began a stint as the lead singer of the Staten Island band Vagabond Missionaries.

The New York Dolls in 1963. From left: Arthur Kane, Sylvain Sylvain, David Johansen, Jerry Nolan and Johnny Thunders.

Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns

Johansen joined the New York Dolls in 1972. They released their self-titled debut album in 1973. Their second album, Too Much Too Soon, followed a year later. Though neither album was a commercial success, the band ultimately influenced future generations as punk found mainstream appeal.

Billboard wrote in 2021, “There’s a slew of artists from the ’70s and beyond whose No. 1s would be unthinkable without the pioneering look, sound and attitude of these glammed-up NYC proto-punks.”

Though the band was never inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Johansen didn’t mind, telling the outlet, “To me, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame appears to be a racket.”

Johansen embarked on a solo career, releasing four albums between 1978 and 1984. Then, in 1987, he introduced his alter ego, Buster Poindexter.

PEOPLE described the character in 1988 as a “Vegas-style lounge lush and cabaret showman extraordinaire.”

The name came from childhood teasing, Johansen said, explaining, "On the street, they called me Buster. Then they'd catch me with books and call me Poindexter, so it's kind of an intellectual punk or something.'' 

Bill Murray (left) and David Johansen in 1988's 'Scrooged'.

Moviestore/Shutterstock

Rolling Stone named Johansen's debut release ''the party album of the year,'' and it reached No. 40 on the Billboard 200. During his shows, he’d tell stories from his rock and roll life in between songs. He also performed widely on late-night TV.

''I know some people think, 'Oh, Johansen puts on a tuxedo and thinks he's somebody else,' '' he said in 1988. ''But it's me, really. Sometimes, I've found that by getting into a certain drag, or a certain feeling, you can cast off your mortal coil and do something. I don't know if it's important, but it's something. It's entertainment.''

“Hot Hot Hot” from that first album became Johansen's most widely known song, though his feelings about it were complicated. He once called it “the bane of my existence.”

Johansen explained to PEOPLE in 2015, “Sometimes when you get saddled with a hit, then you always have to sing it whether you want to or not. You go through phases with a song. But one time I went to my nephew’s wedding, and the band played it, and they made me get up and sing it, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, this thing is like an albatross around my neck.' ”

David Johansen in 1987.

Ebet Roberts/Redferns

In the late ‘80s, Johansen launched an acting career, with cameos in 1987’s Candy Mountain and 1988’s Married to the Mob. He played the Ghost of Christmas Past in 1988’s Scrooged and later appeared in The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Oz and A Very Murray Christmas. 

''I'm doing exactly what I want to do, and I'm having fun doing it,'' he said in 1988. ''Buster can have this great life in the public eye and take the rap for everything, and then David can go home. It's the most brilliant thing I've ever done.''

Johansen added that while the New York Dolls were “hot stuff,” as Buster, he was “more relaxed.”

David Johansen circa 1990.

Art Zelin/Getty 

Lounge shows ultimately had a revival in the years after Poindexter debuted. “Like a lot of stuff I do, 10 years later it becomes popular,” Johansen told Interview Magazine in 2014.

In 2004, Johansen re-formed the Dolls. He told NPR at the time that he had to relearn the lyrics to the band’s songs.

“I was thinking, 'God, how did I write that song? This is great,' ” he said. Johansen performed with them until 2011. “We were gonna do one show, and then we wound up playing for eight years and went around the world like three times,” he told PEOPLE.

In 2015, Johansen began performing as Poindexter again at New York’s legendary Café Carlyle. “I just decided to do an act that only plays New York, that can only play New York,” he said.

Sylvain Sylvain (left) and David Johansen performing in 2011.

 Matt Kent/WireImage

Poindexter, he said, “can sing any song I want,” and he defined his own musical tastes as what he “digged,” adding, “I don’t pay much attention to anything that doesn’t turn me on.”

Johansen was married to actress Cyrinda Foxe from 1977 to 1978. From 1983 to 2011, he was married to photographer Kate Simon. In 2013, he wed artist Mara Hennessey and became stepfather to her daughter.

David Johansen in 2014.

Rob Kim/Getty Images

In 2023, Johansen was the subject of the documentary Personality Crisis: One Night Only, directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi, which centered around his cabaret performance.

Hennessey's interviews with her father were also featured in it.

“Initially we just talked about using my interviews as research, but as I kept shooting, David started to open up a little, and the rather intimate footage became a through line in the film,” she told Cultured Magazine in 2023.

“It had a poignancy to it, and a beauty,” Scorsese told The Los Angeles Times of Johansen’s performances.

Johansen is survived by his wife and daughter.

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