Richard Lloyd, the guitarist whose intertwining lines with Tom Verlaine made Television one of the most influential bands of the punk era, has died at 75.

Lloyd died early Saturday, Nov. 7, at his home in Chattanooga, Tennessee, after battling cholangiocarcinoma, a rare form of bile-duct cancer, his family confirmed. He was diagnosed in March 2026, according to a GoFundMe organized by his friend and bandmate Sean Seymour, and the illness had left him unable to tour.

Lloyd co-founded Television in New York City in 1973 with Verlaine, bassist Richard Hell and drummer Billy Ficca. The band’s 1977 debut album, “Marquee Moon,” remains a landmark of the era, its twin-guitar interplay influencing generations of guitarists that followed.

Verlaine died in January 2023 at 73. Born in Pittsburgh in 1951 as Richard John Alt and raised in Greenwich Village, Lloyd also sustained a decades-long solo career after Television.

Source: USA Today

Television in 1977. (Photo: Elektra Records via Wikimedia Commons)