Rest in peace, Robert Hegyes. The actor best known for playing skirt-chaser Juan Epstein on ABC’s Welcome Back, Kotter passed away Thursday morning of an apparent heart attack. He was 60.
The New Jersey Star-Ledger reports that police in Metuchen, N.J., responded to a call for medical assistance at Hegyes’s home at 9:02 a.m. when the actor was complaining of chest pains.
He was transported to JFK Medical Center in nearby Edison, where he passed away. According to his brother, Mark, Hegyes was not in good health after suffering a heart attack a few years ago.
Hegyes appeared alongside John Travolta in Kotter, which starred comedian Gabe Kaplan as Gabe Kotter, a high school teacher who returned to his old institution to instruct and inspire a gaggle of miscreants called The Sweat Hogs.
Travolta portrayed Vinnie Barbarino, Ron Palillo was Arnold Horshack, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs played Freddie (Boom Boom) Washington and Hegyes was Epstein. The program ran from 1975 to 1979.
Hegyes’s website outlines that he based the swaggering Epstein after Chico Marx, whom he played in a national touring production of A Night With Groucho, and was a big fan of the Marx Brothers.
“They were immigrant Jews, and I was an immigrant Italian,” the website reads. “Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Gummo, and Zeppo were intellectuals ... They all played the piano and took music lessons, and they were all juvenile delinquents; I could definitely relate.”
Born in New Jersey, he graduated from Rowan University with a B.A. in speech and theatre, and performed off-Broadway in New York City before landing the role on Kotter.
After the sitcom’s four-season run, Hegyes jumped to cop drama Cagney & Lacey, where he assumed the role of Det. Manny Esposito for 37 episodes. He followed that up with guest roles on NewsRadio, Diagnosis Murder and L.A. Heat.
Hegyes was reunited with Kotter co-stars Travolta, Hilton-Jacobs, Kaplan, Palillo and Marcia Strassman when they accepted a trophy at 2010’s TV Land Awards to recognize the sitcom.
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