Ace Frehley, guitarist and founding member of Kiss, dies at 74

Ace Frehley, the original lead guitarist of the hard-rock band Kiss, who often performed with a face painted in white and silver and sold millions of records during his two tenures with the group — from 1973 to 1982 and then from 1996 to 2002 — died Thursday in Morristown, New Jersey. He was 74 years old.

According to a press release from his family, the cause was a recent fall at his home.

An accomplished showman, like all members of Kiss, Mr. Frehley was known for playing guitars equipped with pyrotechnic effects and for his distinctive stage persona: he was known as “Spaceman” or “Space Ace” because of the silver stars on his face. He also designed the band’s logo (with help from guitarist Paul Stanley).

The other founding members of Kiss, besides Mr. Frehley and Mr. Stanley, were drummer Peter Criss and bassist Gene Simmons. Mr. Simmons was hospitalized this month after a car accident in Malibu, California.

Kiss was initially seen by many rock fans as gimmicky charlatans – the band members were not photographed without their stage makeup until 1983 – but its energetic concerts built a following of devoted teenagers, known as the Kiss Army. The group placed eight singles in the Top 40 during Mr. Frehley’s tenure; he played on seven of them, including “Love Gun”, “Christine Sixteen” and “I Was Made for Loving You”. (He was absent from the group’s biggest hit, “Beth,” a ballad with orchestral accompaniment that reached No. 7 on the Billboard charts in 1976.)

With the passage of time and the enduring popularity of its party anthem “Rock and Roll All Nite”, the band’s critical reputation gradually improved. Kiss was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.

“Of the four founding members of Kiss, I was certainly the most successful solo artist,” Mr. Frehley boasted in a 2024 interview with the website Antihero. This was true in large part because of his single “New York Groove,” a Top 20 hit in 1978 that is now played at Citi Field after every Mets victory. His other solo projects included the band Frehley’s Comet.

Paul Daniel Frehley was born in the Bronx on April 27, 1951 and began playing guitar at the age of 13. He was given the nickname Ace at the age of 16 by the drummer of one of his first bands in thanks for offering him attractive dates. Early in Kiss, Mr. Frehley began using that nickname full-time to avoid confusion with Mr. Stanley.

During Mr. Frehley’s initial tenure with Kiss, the group released 11 albums, studio and live, which were certified gold or platinum in the United States.

He is survived by his wife, Jeanette; his daughter, Monique; his brother Charles; and his sister, Nancy Salvner.

A full obituary will be published soon.