Wendy O. Williams: Biography

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• Plasmatics

Birth Name:

Wendy Orlean Williams

Born:

May 28, 1949 in Webster, NY

Died:

Apr 6, 1998 in Stors, CT

Genres:

Rock Music, Metal Rock Music, Progressive Rock Music

Decades Active:

1980's

Cultural Impact

Low

Popularity

Low

Ratings Guide

Co-founder and raison d'etre for the Plasmatics, Wendy Orleans Williams, whose background included topless dancing and blue movies, was at one time on the cutting edge of rock as performance art -- Plasmatics performances could be literally explosive. She has been credited with bringing the mohawk hairstyle to some sort of legitimacy in the music business, and continued to be notorious for turning up on stage wearing little more than a few carefully placed strips of magnetic tape.

She was recruited for the Plasmatics by Rob Swenson, for whom she was working in blue movies and sex shows in New York City, with Swenson moving from the status of manager to that of companion for the following two decades, though the couple never married. Following the dissolution of the Plasmatics, she made an attempt at a solo career, releasing three records (one of them produced by Gene Simmons of Kiss) and dabbled in acting for film and television, though with fairly limited success. She reunited with other Plasmatics members in 1987 for Maggots: The Album.

She retired from the limelight at the end of the 1980s, involving herself in the promotion of vegetarian and health foods, sometimes working in a natural foods co-op. She and Swenson moved to Storrs, CT, in 1995. On April 7th, 1998, Swenson returned to their home to find Williams gone, and a package from her waiting for him. The package turned out to contain several letters, some seeds, and other personal items. Williams had felt for several years that she had passed the peak of her life, and that the world was too difficult a place to deal with in decline. Swenson proceeded to search the woods around their home, finding her body just before nightfall. Williams had shot herself. She was 48 years old at the time of her death.

- Steven McDonald, All Music Guide