David Johansen in New York City in 2015. Photo:  Ilya S. Savenok/Getty

• David Johansen, the singer from the seminal punk band the New York Dolls, who had a memorable role in 1988’s Scrooged and solo hits under the alter-ego Buster Poindexter, has been fighting stage 4 cancer, his daughter Leah Hennessy says
• The music icon had a recent fall that left him ‘bedridden and incapacitated,” leaving the family to launch a fundraiser to help pay his significant medical bills
• The family has teamed up with Sweet Relief Musicians Fund to raise money for his treatment

David Johansen, the singer from the seminal punk band New York Dolls, has stage 4 cancer, his daughter shared in a statement announcing fundraising efforts to care for his illness. 

“David is a legend but he’s also my very real very sick dad,” his daughter Leah Hennessy shared in an Instagram post on Feb. 10, when she announced a partnership with the Sweet Relief Musician’ Fund — which provides financial assistance to artists and those in the music industry struggling with health challenges.

David Johansen in Los Angeles in 2023. Matt Winkelmeyer/Deadline via Getty 

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On the charity’s website, Hennessey shared Johansen’s health struggle, explaining, “David has been in intensive treatment for stage 4 cancer for most of the past decade.”

Although she did not offer specifics about his type of cancer, she shared that five years ago, it progressed to 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.” He underwent surgery, but Hennessy explains that since then, “David has been bedridden and incapacitated. Due to the trauma, David’s illness has progressed exponentially and my mother is caring for him around the clock. ​​”

David Johansen performs with the New York Dolls in London in 2011.  Matt Kent/WireImage

As Johansen said in a statement, as reported by Rolling Stone, “We’ve been living with my illness for a long time, still having fun, seeing friends and family, carrying on, but this tumble the day after Thanksgiving really brought us to a whole new level of debilitation. This is the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. I’ve never been one to ask for help, but this is an emergency. Thank you.”

The family is raising money for full-time nursing and physical therapy, as well as daily expenses. “With professional specialized care, we are hopeful that David can regain some mobility and independence,” Hennessey wrote.

Along with the New York Dolls, Johansen is also well-known for his alter-ego Buster Poindexter; In 1987 he scored a Billboard hit with single, “Hot Hot Hot” as the outlandish character, a year before his memorable turn as the Ghost of Christmas Past in Bill Murry-led hit Scrooged.