From ew, The actor best known for playing Jewish Puerto Rican student Juan Epstein on the 1970s TV show Welcome Back Kotter has died.
The Flynn & Son Funeral Home in Fords, N.J., says it was informed of Robert Hegyes’ death Thursday by the actor’s family. He was 60.
A spokesman at JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.J., told the Star-Ledger newspaper that Hegyes, of Metuchen, arrived at the hospital in the morning in full cardiac arrest and died.
Hegyes was appearing on Broadway in 1975 when he auditioned for Kotter, a TV series about a teacher who returns to the inner-city school of his youth to teach a group of remedial students. They included the character Vinnie Barbarino, played by John Travolta.
5 comments:
Sad. 60 is too young and he was my 3rd favorite sweathog.
I imagine him showing up at the gates of Heaven with a note from his mother excusing him for his tardiness.
Epstein: I ain't goin' to class, man. I ain't never goin' to class.
Kotter: Where you goin' then?
Epstein: I don't know, uh, into the religious life.
Kotter: Brother Epstein, huh? I can see the headlines: 'Puerto Rican Jew enters monastery, becomes the first 'Schlamonk.'
Up your nose with a rubber hose, death!
All these comments totally made me laugh! Which is a tribute, I think. 60 is way too young.
Yeah - that wasn't desroc - that was me.
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