Arthur Harold Kane Jr. (February 3, 1949 – July 13, 2004) was a musician best known as the bass guitarist for the pioneering glam rock band the New York Dolls. Kane was a founding member of the Dolls in 1971 and remained an integral part of the band until he was forced out in 1975, shortly after the departure of Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan. In 2004, after decades of estrangement from Dolls singer David Johansen, Kane rejoined the surviving Dolls (Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain) to rehearse and play a reunion concert in London, which was the subject of the 2005 documentary New York Doll. In addition to his bass playing, Kane was known for his subculture fashion sense and for uttering original aphorisms in his uniquely toned voice. Kane's nickname, "Killer", was inspired by the first article written about the Dolls in which the journalist described Kane's "killer bass playing". Kane also said that it was inspired by the adversary of the 1930s’ science fiction hero Buck Rogers, a villainous character named Killer Kane. Early life Kane was born in The Bronx, New York City, the only child of Erna and Harold Kane. His mother's ancestors had immigrated from Sweden. Arthur was close to his mother and her aunt, his Aunt Millie, who used to like to listen to Elvis records. The first word that he learned as a young child was "record". When Arthur was seventeen, his mother died of cancer (leukemia). His father was an abusive alcoholic and, when he quickly remarried, Arthur left home for good. He graduated from Martin Van Buren High School in Queens. He first played bass in the band Actress along with other original New York Dolls: Johnny Thunders, Rick Rivets and Billy Murcia. Kane attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York as a Food Science and Management student. During his early years there, Kane socialized with art students such as Eric Marshall in the Pratt dormitory on Willoughby Avenue. Marshall was later, through association with the retro New Wave band Marbles, recruited on saxophone for fellow-Doll Sylvain's short-lived Criminals. Kane was always interested in music. By his third year at Pratt he had stopped attending classes, was sharing an apartment with Dave Trott, and wanted to start a band. At twenty-one he inherited money that he used to move to Amsterdam hoping to find like-minded musicians. The New York Dolls After