David Johansen, who died Friday at age 75, was a singular talent. A punk pioneer as the frontman for The New York Dolls, Johansen dabbled in multiple musical genres, achieving his greatest commercial success in the late 1980s as his alter ego, lounge lizard Buster Poindexter.
It was as Poindexter that Johansen found his way into the Saturday Night Live record books, perfoming on the show alongside his “Banshees of Blue” a record five times over five months during the show’s 12th season, including a duet with host Sigourney Weaver and another with Chrissie Hynde.
In SNL‘s first 15 seasons it was common for comedy acts to be booked as “special guests” on the show, sometimes multiple times a season (Andy Kaufman and Penn & Teller being perhaps the most memorable examples), but Johansen was alone among musical acts to achieve this status.
In fact, on two occasions during the show’s 12th season, be appeared on back-to-back episodes—first in October, for the show’s first and second episodes of the season, and then in December for the season’s 7th and 8th episodes. (He returned as a special guest once more that season, for the show’s 11th episode.)
The following season he returned to perform his hit song “Hot Hot Hot,” which he would later describe to Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air as “the bane of my life.”
David Johansen led a conga line through Studio 8H while performing "Hot Hot Hot" as Buster Poindexter, in a 1987 Saturday Night Live appearance. #SNL #DavidJohansen pic.twitter.com/pYcP4CMDt7
— LateNighter (@latenightercom) March 1, 2025
Johansen continued to release music as Buster Poindexter through 1997. In 2020, he turned to blues, fronting the band David Johansen and the Harry Smiths. He also enjoyed a prolific career as an actor, appearing in film and television, including prominent roles in Scrooged and Car 54: Where Are You?
He died Friday after a long battle with cancer. His family says there will be several events celebrating his life and artistry in the coming weeks.
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