Danny Sugerman

Jewish-American Sugerman lived in Beverly Hills in a house with a huge backyard, four-car garage, and Olympic-sized pool. His neighbors were Fred Astaire, Steve McQueen and Raquel Welch. At eleven, his parents divorced and his mother Harriet moved Danny and his siblings to Westchester, Los Angeles where she lived with a prosecuting attorney who was a harsh disciplinarian. Danny was the first pre-schooler barred from entering Gelsons' grocery store after using the vegetable sprayer hose to spray customers and the manager. He attended Westchester High School in Los Angeles, where he regularly authored articles about The Doors in the student newspaper. He attended summer camp near Lakeshore City, California with Todd Fisher, Steven Crane Jr. and one of Ken Venturi and Don Knotts' sons. He graduated in 1972.

He began working with the Doors when he was 12 years old, by answering their fan mail. Following the death of Morrison in July 1971, aged 17, he replaced original Doors' manager, Bill Siddons.

He later went on to manage Ray Manzarek's solo-career and first album. He was also Iggy Pop's manager for a period, and produced his song "Repo Man", before they both ended up in mental hospitals suffering from drug and alcohol addiction.[2] It was during this time that he was also manager for the L.A based glam/punk band, The Joneses, whose founder and lead singer, Jeff Drake, supplied them with high quality heroin. He also wrote Appetite For Destruction: The Days of Guns N' Roses in 1991.

For a time, Sugerman dated Mackenzie Phillips in the 80's. He later married Fawn Hall of the Iran–Contra affair fame in 1991 and they remained married until his death.[3][4] They briefly met MP3.com co-founder Rod Underhill while Hall was employed there. Underhill later stated that "Sugerman was very interesting. He had appeared to go out of his way to appear visually like Jim Morrison. Same type of haircut, similar clothing. The similarity was uncanny." Sugerman discussed his idolization of Morrison in detail, in part of his book Wonderland Avenue.

Sugerman was a recovering heroin addict who found solace in Buddhism.

He died on January 5, 2005 in Los Angeles, from lung cancer,[5] and is buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.

• No One Here Gets Out Alive (1980, with Jerry Hopkins)
• The Doors, the Illustrated History (1983)
• Wonderland Avenue: Tales of Glamour and Excess (1989)
• Appetite For Destruction: The Days Of Guns N' Roses (1991)

• Danny Sugerman on IMDb
• Sugerman Interview on addiction, Hollywood, and drug policy from December, 2000, accessed August 20, 2013
• Obituary in Rolling Stone magazine accessed October 9, 2006
• Obituary in San Diego Union-Tribune accessed October 9, 2006
• Danny Sugerman at Find a Grave