David Johansen, the renowned lead vocalist of the trailblazing proto-punk group, New York Dolls, and later famous as Buster Poindexter, passed away in his New York City residence on Friday, February 28. He was 75 years old.
His step-daughter, Leah Hennessey, verified that Johansen “died peacefully at home, clasping the hands of his wife, Mara Hennessey, and his daughter Leah, in sunlit surroundings amid music and flowers. He died of natural causes after a decade of seriously deteriorating health.”
The family disclosed in February that Johansen had been fighting stage 4 cancer for almost a decade and had also been diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Born in 1950 and brought up on Staten Island, Johansen had a passion for singing from a young age. His father, an opera singer turned insurance salesman, and his librarian mother, were his early influences. Instead of opting for college, Johansen joined an experimental acting group and later became the frontman of the Staten Island band Vagabond Missionaries in the late 1960s.
Johansen’s music career took off when he joined the New York Dolls in 1972. The band released their eponymous debut album in 1973, and “Too Much Too Soon” the following year. Although initially commercially unsuccessful, these albums later gained recognition as cornerstones of the punk movement, with the debut album featuring in Rolling Stone’s list of greatest albums of all time.
Billboard mentioned 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.”
Johansen embarked on a successful solo career after the dissolution of the Dolls in the mid-1970s, releasing four albums between 1978 and 1984. His alter ego Buster Poindexter, a lounge singer character introduced in 1987, catapulted him to mainstream fame with the hit single “Hot Hot Hot.”
In a 1988 interview with PEOPLE, Johansen explained the genesis of his character’s name. He was referred to as “Buster” on the streets, but people called him “Poindexter” when they saw him with books, signifying a combination of intellectualism and punk spirit.
The character shift paid off, with Rolling Stone crowning his debut Buster Poindexter album “the party album of the year,” and it reached No. 40 on the Billboard 200. His shows were known for storytelling between songs, often sharing tales from his rock and roll past.
Despite “Hot Hot Hot” becoming his most recognized song, Johansen had mixed feelings about it. He once referred to it as “the bane of my existence” and told PEOPLE in 2015 that artists who score a hit song often feel bound to perform it, even when they prefer not to. He mentioned that their sentiments toward the song can vary over time.
Johansen also had a successful acting career, featuring in films such as “Scrooged” (1988) where he portrayed the Ghost of Christmas Past, “Married to the Mob” (1988), and TV shows including “The Adventures of Pete & Pete” and “Oz.”
In 2004, Johansen reunited with the remaining members of the New York Dolls. What was initially intended to be a one-off performance turned into an eight-year reunion. “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 resumed his Buster Poindexter persona for performances at New York’s iconic Café Carlyle.
Johansen was the focus of a 2023 documentary titled “Personality Crisis: One Night Only,” directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi. The film revolved around his cabaret shows and included interviews with his daughter Leah.
Scorsese, who had known Johansen for many years, was captivated by the vibrancy of his performances. “It had a poignancy to it, and a beauty,” Scorsese recollected about Johansen’s shows.
Leah Hennessey shared her father’s final health update with PEOPLE, “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. He’s totally with us — mentally, emotionally, [but] he’s physically incapacitated.”
Johansen was married three times: first to actress Cyrinda Foxe from 1977 to 1978, then to photographer Kate Simon from 1983 to 2011, and finally to artist Mara Hennessey in 2013. Leah Hennessey described her parents’ relationship as mythological, being in love every moment of the day.
Johansen is survived by his wife, Mara, and his step-daughter, Leah.
