# David Johansen, frontman of New York Dolls, dies aged 75

Strikingly handsome, he and his bandmates offset the macho rock star image by wearing women’s clothing and makeup, bringing a vaudevillian energy to their brutish music. As well as being straightforwardly thrilling, it proved to be hugely influential, pointing the way from glam to the punk music that was beginning to brew in New York City. They never broke the Top 100 of either the US or UK charts, but critics have deemed songs such as Personality Crisis – sung by Johansen with a throaty, lung-busting howl – some of the greatest rock of the 1970s.

Last month he had announced he was living with cancer, and recently suffered a broken back. “David Johansen passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers,” reads a statement on a website created to raise funds for his medical care.

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**Alexis Petridis: Johansen was wild and whip-smart**  


**David Johansen: a life in pictures**  


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**Ben Beaumont-Thomas**  
Sat 1 Mar 2025 12.58 EST  
Last modified on Sat 1 Mar 2025 16.33 EST

David Johansen, the swaggering, peacocking frontman with glam rock band New York Dolls, has died aged 75.

Last month he had announced he was living with cancer, and recently suffered a broken back. “David Johansen passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers,” reads a statement on a website created to raise funds for his medical care.

Strikingly handsome, he and his bandmates offset the macho rock star image by wearing women’s clothing and makeup, bringing a vaudevillian energy to their brutish music. As well as being straightforwardly thrilling, it proved to be hugely influential, pointing the way from glam to the punk music that was beginning to brew in New York City. They never broke the Top 100 of either the US or UK charts, but critics have deemed songs such as Personality Crisis – sung by Johansen with a throaty, lung-busting howl – some of the greatest rock of the 1970s.





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**Alexis Petridis: Johansen was wild and whip-smart**  


**David Johansen: a life in pictures**  


---

**Ben Beaumont-Thomas**  
Sat 1 Mar 2025 12.58 EST  
Last modified on Sat 1 Mar 2025 16.33 EST

David Johansen, the swaggering, peacocking frontman with glam rock band New York Dolls, has died aged 75.

Last month he had announced he was living with cancer, and recently suffered a broken back. “David Johansen passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers,” reads a statement on a website created to raise funds for his medical care.

Strikingly handsome, he and his bandmates offset the macho rock star image by wearing women’s clothing and makeup, bringing a vaudevillian energy to their brutish music. As well as being straightforwardly thrilling, it proved to be hugely influential, pointing the way from glam to the punk music that was beginning to brew in New York City. They never broke the Top 100 of either the US or UK charts, but critics have deemed songs such as Personality Crisis – sung by Johansen with a throaty, lung-busting howl – some of the greatest rock of the 1970s.

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**Ben Beaumont-Thomas**  
Sat 1 Mar 2025 12.58 EST  
Last modified on Sat 1 Mar 2025 16.33 EST

David Johansen, the swaggering, peacocking frontman with glam rock band New York Dolls, has died aged 75.

Last month he had announced he was living with cancer, and recently suffered a broken back. “David Johansen passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers,” reads a statement on a website created to raise funds for his medical care.

Strikingly handsome, he and his bandmates offset the macho rock star image by wearing women’s clothing and makeup, bringing a vaudevillian energy to their brutish music. As well as being straightforwardly thrilling, it proved to be hugely influential, pointing the way from glam to the punk music that was beginning to brew in New York City. They never broke the Top 100 of either the US or UK charts, but critics have deemed songs such as Personality Crisis – sung by Johansen with a throaty, lung-busting howl – some of the greatest rock of the 1970s.

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**Ben Beaumont-Thomas**  
Sat 1 Mar 2025 12.58 EST  
Last modified on Sat 1 Mar 2025 16.33 EST

David Johansen, the swaggering, peacocking frontman with glam rock band New York Dolls, has died aged 75.

Last month he had announced he was living with cancer, and recently suffered a broken back. “David Johansen passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers,” reads a statement on a website created to raise funds for his medical care.

Strikingly handsome, he and his bandmates offset the macho rock star image by wearing women’s clothing and makeup, bringing a vaudevillian energy to their brutish music. As well as being straightforwardly thrilling, it proved to be hugely influential, pointing the way from glam to the punk music that was beginning to brew in New York City. They never broke the Top 100 of either the US or UK charts, but critics have deemed songs such as Personality Crisis – sung by Johansen with a throaty, lung-busting howl – some of the greatest rock of the 1970s.

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**Ben Beaumont-Thomas**  
Sat 1 Mar 2025 12.58 EST  
Last modified on Sat 1 Mar 2025 16.33 EST

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**Ben Beaumont-Thomas**  
Sat 1 Mar 2025 12.58 EST  
Last modified on Sat 1 Mar 2025 16.33 EST

David Johansen, the swaggering, peacocking frontman with glam rock band New York Dolls, has died aged 75.

Last month he had announced he was living with cancer, and recently suffered a broken back. “David Johansen passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers,” reads a statement on a website created to raise funds for his medical care.

Strikingly handsome, he and his bandmates offset the macho rock star image by wearing women’s clothing and makeup, bringing a vaudevillian energy to their brutish music. As well as being straightforwardly thrilling, it proved to be hugely influential, pointing the way from glam to the punk music that was beginning to brew in New York City. They never broke the Top 100 of either the US or UK charts, but critics have deemed songs such as Personality Crisis – sung by Johansen with a throaty, lung-busting howl – some of the greatest rock of the 1970s.

---

**Alexis Petridis: Johansen was wild and whip-smart**  


**David Johansen: a life in pictures**  


---

**Ben Beaumont-Thomas**  
Sat 1 Mar 2025 12.58 EST  
Last modified on Sat 1 Mar 2025 16.33 EST

David Johansen, the swaggering, peacocking frontman with glam rock band New York Dolls, has died aged 75.

Last month he had announced he was living with cancer, and recently suffered a broken back. “David Johansen passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers,” reads a statement on a website created to raise funds for his medical care.

Strikingly handsome, he and his bandmates offset the macho rock star image by wearing women’s clothing and makeup, bringing a vaudevillian energy to their brutish music. As well as being straightforwardly thrilling, it proved to be hugely influential, pointing the way from glam to the punk music that was beginning to brew in New York City. They never broke the Top 100 of either the US or UK charts, but critics have deemed songs such as Personality Crisis – sung by Johansen with a throaty, lung-busting howl – some of the greatest rock of the 1970s.

---

**Alexis Petridis: Johansen was wild and whip-smart**  


**David Johansen: a life in pictures**  


---

**Ben Beaumont-Thomas**  
Sat 1 Mar 2025 12.58 EST  
Last modified on Sat 1 Mar 2025 16.33 EST

David Johansen, the swaggering, peacocking frontman with glam rock band New York Dolls, has died aged 75.

Last month he had announced he was living with cancer, and recently suffered a broken back. “David Johansen passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers,” reads a statement on a website created to raise funds for his medical care.

Strikingly handsome, he and his bandmates offset the macho rock star image by wearing women’s clothing and makeup, bringing a vaudevillian energy to their brutish music. As well as being straightforwardly thrilling, it proved to be hugely influential, pointing the way from glam to the punk music that was beginning to brew in New York City. They never broke the Top 100 of either the US or UK charts, but critics have deemed songs such as Personality Crisis – sung by Johansen with a throaty, lung-busting howl – some of the greatest rock of the 1970s.

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**Ben Beaumont-Thomas**  
Sat 1 Mar 2025 12.58 EST  
Last modified on Sat 1 Mar 2025 16.33 EST

David Johansen, the swaggering, peacocking frontman with glam rock band New York Dolls, has died aged 75.

Last month he had announced he was living with cancer, and recently suffered a broken back. “David Johansen passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers,” reads a statement on a website created to raise funds for his medical care.

Strikingly handsome, he and his bandmates offset the macho rock star image by wearing women’s clothing and makeup, bringing a vaudevillian energy to their brutish music. As well as being straightforwardly thrilling, it proved to be hugely influential, pointing the way from glam to the punk music that was beginning to brew in New York City. They never broke the Top 100 of either the US or UK charts, but critics have deemed songs such as Personality Crisis – sung by Johansen with a throaty, lung-busting howl – some of the greatest rock of the 1970s.

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---

**Ben Beaumont-Thomas**  
Sat 1 Mar 2025 12.58 EST  
Last modified on Sat 1 Mar 2025 16.33 EST

David Johansen, the swaggering, peacocking frontman with glam rock band New York Dolls, has died aged 75.

Last month he had announced he was living with cancer, and recently suffered a broken back. “David Johansen passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers,” reads a statement on a website created to raise funds for his medical care.

Strikingly handsome, he and his bandmates offset the macho rock star image by wearing women’s clothing and makeup, bringing a vaudevillian energy to their brutish music. As well as being straightforwardly thrilling, it proved to be hugely influential, pointing the way from glam to the punk music that was beginning to brew in New York City. They never broke the Top 100 of either the US or UK charts, but critics have deemed songs such as Personality Crisis – sung by Johansen with a throaty, lung-busting howl – some of the greatest rock of the 1970s.

---



---

**Ben Beaumont-Thomas**  
Sat 1 Mar 2025 12.58 EST  
Last modified on Sat 1 Mar 2025 16.33 EST

David Johansen, the swaggering, peacocking frontman with glam rock band New York Dolls, has died aged 75.

Last month he had announced he was living with cancer, and recently suffered a broken back. “David Johansen passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers,” reads a statement on a website created to raise funds for his medical care.

Strikingly handsome, he and his bandmates offset the macho rock star image by wearing women’s clothing and makeup, bringing a vaudevillian energy to their brutish music. As well as being straightforwardly thrilling, it proved to be hugely influential, pointing the way from glam to the punk music that was beginning to brew in New York City. They never broke the Top 100 of either the US or UK charts, but critics have deemed songs such as Personality Crisis – sung by Johansen with a throaty, lung-busting howl – some of the greatest rock of the 1970s.

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