David Johansen, who segued from being the New York Dolls frontman to his Buster Poindexter alter ego and back again, has died at age 75.

In the 1970s, he and the transgressive Dolls were proto-punk pioneers. He later refashioned himself as the pompadoured lounge lizard Buster Poindexter.

David Johansen has died. Although best known and celebrated for his work as lead singer of formative American punk band New York Dolls, Johansen was an unabashed artistic chameleon, who also achieved mainstream chart success under his Buster Poindexter pseudonym,