Richard Lloyd, the former guitarist with influential New York punk band Television, has died at the age of 75.
Lloyd passed away on Saturday morning at home in Tennessee. His death was a result of cholangiocarcinoma, a form of bile duct cancer. He had been diagnosed with the disease earlier in 2026. “His loving wife Sheila and his dog Willie Mays were with him at the end,” said his family in a statement to Rolling Stones.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1951, Lloyd co-founded Television in 1973 with guitarist Tom Verlaine, bassist Richard Hell and drummer Billy Ficca. They became fixtures on the early New York punk scene alongside the likes of Patti Snith, Ramones and Blondie.
Television followed their 1975 debut single Little Johnny Jewel with the landmark Marquee Moon album two years later. Widely hailed as one of the greatest records of the era, Marquee Moon was defined by Lloyd and Verlaine’s intricate, angular dual guitar figures.
They released one more album, Adventure, before splitting up in 1978. After reuniting in 1991, they released a third and final, self-titled album, and toured sporadically over the next few years. Lloyd left the band in 2007.
Speaking of his contribution to Television, Lloyd told The Stranger in 2025: “All the filigrees and arabesques on Marquee Moon are all mine. Even though the solos are maybe different, during the verses, when Tom’s singing, I’m playing all the melody. I brought a rock’h’roll heart.”
Away from Television, Lloyd also released nine solo albums, the most recent of which was 2018’s Countdown. He published a memoir, Everything Is Combustible: Television, CBGB's And Five Decades of Rock And Roll, in 2018.
After being diagnosed with cancer in March, a crowdfunding campaign was set up to support Lloyd. The guitarist‘s New York contemporary Patti Smith donated $5000 to the campaign.
