In more than 40 years as a manager, promoter, publisher, producer and record label mogul, Gary Kurfirst played a key role in furthering the careers of many of the biggest names in rock music. A famously tough negotiator, he helped to steer the careers of such seminal acts as the Ramones, Blondie and Talking Heads.

Equally at home sharing a beer with his bands in a scruffy backstage dressing room as he was driving a hard bargain in the boardrooms of corporate America, he also represented a host of big-selling British names, including the Eurythmics, the Waterboys and the Thompson Twins.

Born in New York in 1947, his love of music and his business acumen first came together in his teens when he began organising dances and concerts while still a student at Forest Hills High School. In 1967 he became more ambitious and opened in Manhattan, where he leased the Village Theatre, and enjoyed great success putting on top visiting British bands such as The Who, Jeff Beck, Procol Harum, the Yardbirds and Cream.

When the promoter Bill Graham took over the theatre in 1968, and renamed it the Fillmore East, Kurfirst moved on to other venues. Still only 21, he promoted the Doors at Madison Square Garden, and organised the 1968 New York Rock Festival at Flushing Meadow, with a bill that included Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Doors and The Who.

Around the same time he started his own management company, and by the early 1970s numbered several influential British acts among his clients, including Heads, Hands & Feet and Free. Both were signed to Chris Blackwell’s Island label and it was the start of an enduring partnership between the two men which led to them teaming up in the mid-1970s to launch Bob Marley’s career in America.

Quite different in temperament, Kurfirst’s determination to remain anonymous provided the perfect foil for Blackwell’s more flamboyant style, and they remained friends and business associates for more than three decades. “He wanted no spotlight or glory,” Blackwell said on the news of his death. “Because of his total lack of desire for any personal recognition, he never did any interviews. I hope that it can now be written just how many artists he helped guide along the way.”

Away from his collaboration with Blackwell, Kurfirst in 1977 discovered an unknown New York band called Talking Heads, and became their manager. He swiftly added the B-52s and the Ramones to his roster to become a central figure in the American punk and new wave scene, although his preference for anonymity meant that few outside the industry were aware of it.

During the 1980s he took on an eclectic list of clients that included the Eurythmics, Rickie Lee Jones, the Waterboys, the former Clash guitarist Mick Jones and his band Big Audio Dynamite, Deborah Harry and Jane’s Addiction.

He also branched out into film, acting as the producer on Stop Making Sense, Jonathan Demme’s 1984 film about Talking Heads, and two years later on David Byrne’s directorial debut True Stories.

He also ran several record labels, the most significant of which was Radioactive Records, which he launched in 1990. The label released recordings by the Ramones and Big Audio Dynamite, and chart-topping albums by Black Grape and Live. He also discovered the singer Shirley Manson who went on to multi-platinum success with Garbage.

In later years he was assisted in running his various enterprises by his son Josh. He is survived by his wife, Phyllis, and their son and daughter.

Gary Kurfirst, music industry entrepreneur, was born in 1947. He died on January 13, 2009, aged 61