Arthur Harold Kane Jr. (February 3, 1949 – July 13, 2004) was an American 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 addition to his bass playing, Kane was known for his subculture fashion sense and for uttering original aphorisms in his uniquely toned voice.

He first played bass in the band Actress along with other original New York Dolls: Johnny Thunders, Rick Rivets and Billy Murcia.

After returning home after spending about a year in Amsterdam,[6] Kane had been noticing a charismatic figure around New York City with avant-garde hair and clothes who would shortly take on the name Johnny Thunders.

Kane decided to approach him one day in front of a West Village pizzeria (accompanied by Rick Rivets, who had heard that Johnny was a musician) to ask him if he wanted to get together sometime to jam on their instruments.

[7] Shortly thereafter they all met at a rehearsal studio, where they had booked some time, located in the West Thirties area of New York City[8] (Johnny brought along his friend Billy Murcia to play drums).

Kane later wrote in his autobiography that as he was about to enter the studio space he heard Johnny's original style of playing electric guitar: "It was raunchy, nasty, rough, raw, and untamed," adding, "His sound was rich and fat and beautiful, like a voice.

The tone of his voice was kind of ethereal for a boy with such an imposing presence, and I have to say that I was both amused and intrigued by him, so we went to Johnny Thunders' apartment on 10th Street and started to play some music and just like that I was a New York Doll.

[1]Killer Kane was known for his outrageous outfits such as one-piece body stockings, large bow-ties, and thigh-high, neon-colored platform boots.

As rock photographer Bob Gruen explained, while playing bass Kane "moved a bit robotically, kind of like a giant Frankenstein.

After the Dolls, Kane was involved in several projects including: playing bass in the band formed by Sid Vicious (who had a brief solo career in 1978 after the Sex Pistols);[11] being a member of The Idols (with Jerry Nolan), and The Corpse Grinders (with Rick Rivets); and joining Johnny Thunders on a few tours in the 1980s.

These projects failed to turn into long-term gigs, and Kane began to feel that there was no longer any place in the music business for him; that what little material success he had achieved with the Dolls was to be the high-water mark of his career.

[2] Lead singer of the Dolls, David Johansen, who Kane viewed as a rival, found success as Buster Poindexter.

After seeing David Johansen as the Ghost of Christmas Past in the comedy Scrooged, Arthur, in his depression, got drunk and jumped out of a second storey window.

In 1998 Kane started volunteer work as a librarian assisting the public with genealogy at the Family History Center at the Los Angeles Temple.

Coincidentally, in 2004 Morrissey—who for decades had been a high-profile fan of the Dolls—offered Kane an opportunity to perform a reunion show with the surviving Dolls (David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain) at the Royal Festival Hall in London as part of his Meltdown Festival (former band members Johnny Thunders died in 1991 at age 38, and Jerry Nolan in 1992 at age 45).

It's something that I haven't dealt with in thirty years.On July 13, 2004, just 22 days after the reunion concert, Kane thought that he had caught the flu in London and checked himself into a Los Angeles hospital, complaining of fatigue.