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MrPsychic

TV pitchman Billy Mays found dead at Florida home

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From Yahoo/AP:

TAMPA, Fla. – Billy Mays, the burly, bearded television pitchman whose boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean made him a pop-culture icon, has died. He was 50.

 

Tampa police said Mays was found unresponsive by his wife Sunday morning. A fire rescue crew pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m. It was not immediately clear how he died. He said he was hit on the head when an airplane he was on made a rough landing Saturday, and Mays' wife told investigators the TV personality didn't feel well before he went to bed that night.

 

There were no signs of a break-in at the home, and investigators do not suspect foul play, said Lt. Brian Dugan of the Tampa Police Department, who wouldn't answer any more questions about how Mays' body was found because of the ongoing investigation. The coroner's office expects to have an autopsy done by Monday afternoon.

 

Mays' wife, Deborah Mays, told investigators that her husband had complained he didn't feel well before he went to bed some time after 10 p.m. Saturday night, Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said.

 

"Although Billy lived a public life, we don't anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days," Deborah Mays said in a statement Sunday. "Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times."

 

U.S. Airways confirmed Sunday that Mays was among the passengers on a flight that made a rough landing on Saturday afternoon at Tampa International Airport, leaving debris on the runway after apparently blowing its front tires.

 

Tampa Bay's Fox television affiliate interviewed Mays after the incident.

 

"All of a sudden as we hit you know it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping," MyFox Tampa Bay quoted him as saying. "It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head."

 

McElroy said linking Mays' death to the rough landing Saturday afternoon would "purely be speculation." She said Mays' family members didn't report any health issues with the pitchman, but they said he was due to have hip replacement surgery in the coming weeks.

 

Born William Mays in McKees Rocks, Pa., on July 20, 1958, Mays developed his style demonstrating knives, mops and other "as seen on TV" gadgets on Atlantic City's boardwalk. For years he worked as a hired gun on the state fair and home show circuits, attracting crowds with his booming voice and genial manner.

 

After meeting Orange Glo International founder Max Appel at a home show in Pittsburgh in the mid-1990s, Mays was recruited to demonstrate the environmentally friendly line of cleaning products on the St. Petersburg-based Home Shopping Network.

 

Commercials and informercials followed, anchored by the high-energy Mays showing how it's done while tossing out kitschy phrases like, "Long live your laundry!"

 

Recently he's been seen on commercials for a wide variety of products and is featured on the reality TV show "Pitchmen" on the Discovery Channel, which follows Mays and Anthony Sullivan in their marketing jobs. He's also been seen in ESPN ads.

 

His ubiquitousness and thumbs-up, in-your-face pitches won Mays plenty of fans. People line up at his personal appearances for autographed color glossies, and strangers stop him in airports to chat about the products.

 

"I enjoy what I do," Mays told The Associated Press in a 2002 interview. "I think it shows."

 

Mays liked to tell the story of giving bottles of OxiClean to the 300 guests at his wedding, and doing his ad spiel ("powered by the air we breathe!") on the dance floor at the reception. Visitors to his house typically got bottles of cleaner and housekeeping tips.

 

As part of "Pitchmen," Mays and Sullivan showed viewers new gadgets such as the Impact Gel shoe insert; the Tool Band-it, a magnetized armband that holds tools; and the Soft Buns portable seat cushion.

 

"One of the things that we hope to do with 'Pitchmen' is to give people an appreciation of what we do," Mays told The Tampa Tribune in an interview in April. "I don't take on a product unless I believe in it. I use everything that I sell."

 

Discovery Channel spokeswoman Elizabeth Hillman released a statement Sunday extending sympathy to the Mays family.

 

"Everyone that knows him was aware of his larger-than-life personality, generosity and warmth," Hillman's statement said. "Billy was a pioneer in his field and helped many people fulfill their dreams. He will be greatly missed as a loyal and compassionate friend."

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From the report that I saw on Fox News it sounds like a head injury sustained on his flight the night before could be the cause here. I never bought any of the items that he advertised but his commercials didn't annoy me, the ones with that guy that advertises "Sham-Wow" gets turned off with the first instant of recognition.

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Uhhhhhhh........who?

 

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His death really caught me off guard and saddened me. I just saw him like two nights ago on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" and his big new reality competition TV show just kicked off a few weeks ago. He started with little and had made so much for himself and was just coming into probably the best part of his life when it suddenly and needlessly ended. Very sad.

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I question whether this person can actually be classified as a celebrity

I suppose it depends on how you define "celebrity". He made many infomercials and commercials and had his own reality show on Discovery. To some that would qualify him to some degree of 'celebrity' status.

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Sad to hear about Billy. I have seen his 'Oxy-Clean' and other commercials in my tv market area, and I found that he brought a believability to what he was 'pitching'. He struck me as an ok fellow. It is too bad, indeed, that he left this world just as he was rising to a higher point of success-though, of course, it's who you are that counts, too. Rest in Peace, Billy.

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Who called him a celebrity? He was a good man that died too early.

Everyone here is calling him a celebrity..........

As for good men that die too early? The obituaries are full of them every day except they don't get major media coverage.

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Uhhhhhhh........who?

 

:)

 

Oxi Clean?

Mighty Putty?

Big City Sliders?

Awesome Auger?

 

BILLY MAYS! You clearly do not watch enough TV. :elephant:

 

Though my favorites were the commercials where he was making fun of himself. "When term papers get boring, see who's scoring!"

 

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Who called him a celebrity? He was a good man that died too early.

Everyone here is calling him a celebrity..........

As for good men that die too early? The obituaries are full of them every day except they don't get major media coverage.

Right. We all know that. But by that same 'celebrity' ticket I, at age 20, didn't really know who Ed McMahon was or what he actually did until after his death last week. Although he had been retired for 17 years and was best-known for his role as Johnny Carson's sidekick, people were still sad to see him go as he contributed positively to the entire nation's society through the TV medium. He wasn't a celebrity for me but he was in the hearts of others.

 

You're correct about how everyone is treating him as a celebrity. What I meant is that no one had used that specific word for him in this thread. While Ed McMahon was a celebrity to others but not myself, Billy Mays was a celebrity to me and not others.

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