William Martin Aucoin (December 29, 1943 – June 28, 2010) was an American band manager, well known for his work with the rock band

Kiss A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

and

Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is a British-American singer, songwriter, and musician. He first achieved fame in the 1970s emerging from the London punk rock scene as the lead singer o ...

Biography

Born in 1943 in Ayer, Massachusetts, Aucoin attended

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

and graduated with a degree in film. He worked at

WGBH WGBH may refer to: * WGBH Educational Foundation, based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States ** WGBH (FM), a public radio station at Boston, Massachusetts on 89.7 MHz owned by the WGBH Educational Foundation ** WGBH-TV WGBH-TV (channel 2), ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

during his college years and after. Aucoin later worked at Teletape Productions as a cinematographer. Credited with discovering

, Aucoin managed the group for nearly a decade. He was fired in 1982 due to a dispute about the band's appearance plus his drug abuse, but later worked with the band on various

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

projects. Aucoin produced a television show called ''

Supermarket Sweep ''Supermarket Sweep'' is an American television game show. The format combines an ordinary team-based quiz show with the novel concept of a live, timed race through a supermarket. In the timed race, cameras follow the teams with shopping carts t ...

'' in the early 1970s. From 2005 to 2007, Aucoin went into the Broadway business with a staging of

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...

's ''

Quadrophenia ''Quadrophenia'' is the sixth studio album by the English rock band the Who, released as a double album on 26 October 1973 by Track Records. It is the group's third rock opera, the two previous being the "mini-opera" song " A Quick One, While ...

'', which showed intermittently for two years in

Anaheim Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Aucoin had reentered the management business with his company Aucoin Globe Entertainment, at the time of his death of surgical complications from

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...

. He was survived by partner Roman Fernandez and sisters Betty Britton and Janet Bankowski. A statement from

Paul Stanley Paul Stanley (born Stanley Bert Eisen; January 20, 1952) is an American musician who is the co-founder, frontman, rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the hard rock band Kiss. He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's most popular ...

and

Gene Simmons Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz; he, חיים ויץ, ; born August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-American musician. Also known by his stage persona The Demon, he is the bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss, the hard rock band he co-founded with Paul ...

described him as "our irreplaceable original manager, mentor and dear friend… Words cannot convey his impact on us or those close to him."

List of acts managed

, 1973–1982 * Piper 1975–1978 *Virgin 1977-1979 *

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

1978–1981 *

Spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

, 1979-1981 *

Manowar Manowar is an American heavy metal band from Auburn, New York. Formed in 1980, the group is known for lyrics based on fantasy (particularly sword and sorcery) and mythology (particularly Norse mythology and Greco-Roman mythology), as well as ...

, 1981 * Kid Rocker, 1981–1983 *

Toby Beau Toby Beau is an American band from Texas, formed in the early 1970s and perhaps best known for the 1978 hit single, " My Angel Baby". The band is still in existence today and continues to perform on the club circuit. The band's name was based from ...

, 1978-1980 * Skatt Bros. 1979-1981 * Shawn Sommers 1984 *

Gen X Generation X (or Gen X for short) is the Western demographic cohort following the baby boomers and preceding the millennials. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1960s as starting birth years and the late 1970s to early 1980s as ...

1980-1981 *

, 1981–1986 * Endgames, 1983-1985 * Brunette, 1988–1989 * Rising Star, 1989–1990 * Sic Vikki, 1990-1992 *

Flipp Flipp is an American rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1994, founded by singer/guitarist/producer Brynn Arens. They were signed to Hollywood Records and later Artemis Records, releasing 3 studio albums up until their dissolution in ...

, 1998–2003 * CREATURE - 1998-2002 *

Starz Starz (stylized as STARZ since 2016; pronounced "stars") is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by Lions Gate Entertainment, and is the flagship property of parent subsidiary Starz Inc. Programming on Starz consist ...

, 1977–1979 * vanSolo, 2007–2008 *

Crossbreed A crossbreed is an organism with purebred parents of two different breeds, varieties, or populations. ''Crossbreeding'', sometimes called "designer crossbreeding", is the process of breeding such an organism, While crossbreeding is used to main ...

, 2003–2010 *

Lordi Lordi () is a Finnish hard rock/ heavy metal band, formed in 1992 by the band's lead singer, songwriter and costume maker, Mr Lordi (Tomi Petteri Putaansuu). In addition to their melodic metal music, Lordi are also known for wearing monster ma ...

, 2006–2010 * Nothing Rhymes with Orange, 2007–2010 * Evan Saffer, 2007–2010 * NAKED 2009–2010 * BEX, 2010 * The Early Strike, 2010 * Tantric, 2010 * RoqueZa, 1998–2001 * Dreaming in Stereo, 2010

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aucoin, Bill 1943 births 2010 deaths Kiss (band) personnel LGBT people from Massachusetts Northeastern University alumni People from Ayer, Massachusetts Deaths from prostate cancer Talent agents American music managers American LGBT businesspeople Deaths from cancer in Florida