New York Dolls frontman David Johansen dies at 75 after battling stage 4 cancer and a brain tumour

The website Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, which had been created to raise funds for David Johansen, announced the New York Dolls frontman’s death. The statement read: “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.

“After a decade of profoundly compromised health he died of natural causes at the age of 75.

“David and his family were deeply moved by the outpouring of love and support they’ve experienced recently as the result of having gone public with their challenges. He was thankful that he had a chance to be in touch with so many friends and family before he passed.

“He knew he was ecstatically loved.

“​There will be several events celebrating David’s life and artistry, details to follow.”

On February 14 2025, David Johanson’s daughter Leah gave an update on her father’s condition and wrote: “My name is Leah Hennessey, and I’m David Johansen’s daughter. As some, but not many of you know, David has been in intensive treatment for stage 4 cancer for most of the past decade.

“Five years ago at the beginning of the pandemic we discovered that David’s cancer had progressed and he had a brain tumor. 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.

“To make matters worse, the day after Thanksgiving David fell down the stairs and broke his back in two places.”

Leah also shared the news that “David has worked continuously as a singer and actor for the better part of six decades, to the delight of his fans all over the world. However for the past five years, David has been unable to work as a performer.”

When it came to his career, David Johanson started out as a singer with the Vagabond Missionaries in the late 1960s and joined the New York Dolls in 1971. The New York Dolls were known for their tracks Personality Crisis and Looking For A Kiss, but despite their critical acclaim, never found commercial success and broke up after two albums.