Wendy Orlean Williams (better known as "Wendy O. Williams", May 28, 1949 - April 6, 1998) was born in Webster, New York. She was the lead singer for the punk band the Plasmatics, whose stage theatrics included blowing-up equipment, near nudity and chain-sawing guitars.

Dubbed "The Queen of Shock Rock," Williams was widely considered the most controversial and radical female singer of her day. She sported a trademark Mohawk haircut, the first person to do so on American television.

Williams was nominated in 1985 for a Grammy in the Best Female Rock Vocal category during the height of her band's popularity.

After dropping out of school in ninth grade, Wendy worked as a stripper before founding the Plasmatics. With their debut in New York City clubs in 1978, Williams quickly developed a reputation for obscenity and unruliness.

In Milwaukee, police arrested her in 1981 for simulating sex on stage. Charged with battery to an officer and obscene conduct, she was later cleared.

Williams was acquitted that same year of a Cleveland obscenity charge laid for simulating sexual activity on stage wearing nothing but shaving cream. Then, in November, an Illinois judge sentenced her to one year supervision and fined her $35 for roughing up a freelance photographer who had attempted to take her picture as she jogged along the Chicago lakefront.

Meanwhile, the Plasmatics toured the world, once getting banned in London, where the press dubbed them "anarchists."

Shooting an appearance on NBC's SCTV comedy program in 1981, studio heads said they would not air Williams unless she changed out of a stage costume that revealed her nipples. Williams refused. The show's make-up artists found a compromise and painted her breasts black.

She died at 48 in a wooded area near her home in Storrs, Connecticut of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. She had been living in Connecticut since 1991, three years after the Plasmatics' final tour, with her companion and former manager, Rod Swenson. She had been working as an animal rehabilitator. While some argued she committed suicide rather than compromise her art, Swenson reportedly described her as "despondent" at the time of her death.

"I don't believe that people should take their own lives without deep and thoughtful reflection over a considerable period of time," she is said to have written in a suicide note. "I do believe strongly, however, that the right to do so is one of the most fundamental rights that anyone in a free society should have. For me much of the world makes no sense, but my feelings about what I am doing ring loud and clear to an inner ear and a place where there is no self, only calm."

"The empty place she leaves in the world with her passing," said at her memorial service, "will never be replaced".

Discography

with the Plasmatics

• "Butcher Baby/Fast Food Service (Live)/Concrete Shoes (Live)" (7" single, 1978)
• "Meet The Plasmatics" (12" EP, 1979)
• "Dream Lover/Corruption/Want You Baby" (7" single, 1979)
• "Butcher Baby/Tight Black Pants (Live)" (7" single, 1980)
• "Butcher Baby EP" (12" EP, 1980)
• "Monkey Suit/Squirm (Live)" (7" single, 1980)
• New Hope For The Wretched (LP, 1980)
• Beyond The Valley Of 1984 (LP, 1981)
• "Metal Priestess" (12" EP, 1981)
• Coup D'Etat (LP, 1982)
• Maggots: The Record (LP, 1987)
• Coup De Grace (LP, 2000)
• Put Your Love In Me: Love Songs For The Apocalypse (LP, 2002)
• Final Days: Anthems For The Apocalypse (LP, 2002)

Solo

• "Wendy And Lemmy" (7" single, 1982)
• W.O.W. (LP, 1984)
• "It's My Life/Priestess" (7" single, 1984)
• "Fuck 'N' Roll (Live)" (Cassette EP, 1985)
• Kommander Of Kaos (LP, 1986)
• Deffest And Baddest (with Ultrafly And The Hometown Girls) (LP, 1987)
• Fuck You!!! And Loving It: A Retrospective (LP, ????)