Lemmy Kilmister was a performer and musician in the band Motörhead. He was the founder and only constant member of the English rock band, which formed in 1975. The bassist-singer-songwriter contributed to the release of 23 studio albums, 10 live recordings, 12 compilation albums and five EPs over a career spanning 40 years.

The band, and Kilmister in particular, served as the subject of a litany of documentary films and television series such as Top of the Pops, MTV’s Heavy Metal Mania, 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock, Top Ten, The Greatest, Rock School, Heavy Metal Britannia, Metal Evolution, That Metal Show, Behind the Music and countless others.

Motörhead’s songs were also frequently featured in films and on television, including on soundtracks for the movies Airheads, Grosse Point Blank, Ash Wednesday, Smokin’ Aces, Superbad and Dom Hemingway, as well as on the TV shows Skins, House M.D., Revenge and Rage.

Additionally, Kilmister worked as an actor in several films and television series, including the shows The Comic Strip Presents and Psych, and the movies Hardware and Airheads, among others.

The performer got his start at an early age, taking up the guitar, and moving to London in the early 1960s. He performed with several bands, worked as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix in 1967, then switched to bass and joined the band Hawkwind in 1972. He was with the band for three years, until he was ousted in 1975. He formed Motörhead the same year. The new band experienced great success, especially from 1979 to 1981, when they came out with many of their hits, including "Overkill," "Bomber," "Ace of Spades" and "No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith."

His career was documented in the 2002 documentary Lemmy, and the 2010 doc of the same name, the latter one produced and directed by Greg Oliver and former Billboard staffer Wes Orshoski.

Kilmister died December 28, 2015, in Los Angeles. He was 70.