Johnny Legend, cult rockabilly performer and impresario, dies at 77

Johnny Legend, a cult entertainer known for rockabilly music, punk-rock wrestling spectacles and work in B-movie and erotic film circles, died on Jan. 2 in South Beach, Ore. He was 77. His sister, Lynne Margulies Osgood, said the death was caused by complications of a stroke and heart failure; Mr.

Legend was living at her home. Born Martin Margulies in San Fernando, Calif., he took the name Johnny Legend and built an off-kilter career that included co-directing the 1977 X-rated comedy Young, Hot ’n Nasty Teen-Age Cruisers, founding the Incredibly Strange Wrestling shows in the 1990s and touring as a rockabilly performer.

The East Bay Express called him "a living nexus of pop culture," and he once described himself as "the most famous person you’ve never heard of." The alternative newspaper LA Weekly, in a 2003 profile, called him "the wild-eyed, weird-bearded, longhaired dynamo." He made occasional mainstream appearances, including a 1994 spot on MTV’s The Jon Stewart Show, where Mr.

Stewart introduced him as "America’s leading archivist of incredibly strange films." He wrote the novelty song "Pencil Neck Geek" (1977), recorded by Freddie Blassie and popular on Dr. Demento’s radio show, and his Incredibly Strange Wrestling was a sideshow attraction on the 1995 Lollapalooza tour.