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.

David Johansen has died at the age of 75 after being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, PEOPLE can confirm. Johansen was known for his work as the lead singer of the New York Dolls and his cabaret career as Buster Poindexter.

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