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TV pitchman Billy Mays found dead (Read 1100 times)
Jun 28th, 2009 at 1:34pm

Romulus111VADT   Offline
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31596003/ns/us_news-life/?GT1=43001

Mays best known for his hawking of products such as Orange Glo, OxiClean


Quote:
TAMPA, Fla. - Billy Mays, the burly, bearded television pitchman known for his boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean, 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.

There were no signs of a break-in, 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.

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

Rough landing Saturday
Tampa area media outlets reported that Mays was a passenger on a U.S. Airways flight that made a rough landing on Saturday afternoon at Tampa International Airport, apparently blowing its front tires in an incident that left debris on the runway.

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."

U.S. Airways officials said Sunday they could not immediately confirm that Mays was a passenger.

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.

Plenty of fans
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.

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."
 

"I have a place where dreams are born, And time is never planned. It’s not on any chart, You must find it with your heart."

Albert Einstein - "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."

Martin Luther King Jr. - “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - “There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.”

Mark Twain - “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”
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Reply #1 - Jun 28th, 2009 at 1:58pm

charlesed   Offline
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Dang...

I just saw him this morning, he looked so full of life. Cheesy



Joking aside...

This is not a very good time to be famous, if you want to live.
 

Unintentionally halting all discussion on forums since 1992.
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Reply #2 - Jun 28th, 2009 at 2:48pm

®avang   Ex Member

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charlesed wrote on Jun 28th, 2009 at 1:58pm:
This is not a very good time to be famous, if you want to live.


No, it's just not a good time to be 50 years old... Tongue
 
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Reply #3 - Jun 28th, 2009 at 3:37pm

tcco94   Offline
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He will be missed. Do you think his commercials will still be aired?

Rest in Peace Billy Mays  Sad
 
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Reply #4 - Jun 28th, 2009 at 4:03pm

Romulus111VADT   Offline
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Personally, I couldn't stand the man or his annoying commercials. I would normally mute the TV so I wouldn't have to listen to his incredibly annoying voice.

One thing for sure, "Just for Men" lost their best customer. No way that jet black hair and beard weren't colored.

But he was still a human being and someones, husband, father, brother and friend. So he should be treated with due respect. I So I posted this to inform those who may or not care.
 

"I have a place where dreams are born, And time is never planned. It’s not on any chart, You must find it with your heart."

Albert Einstein - "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."

Martin Luther King Jr. - “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - “There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.”

Mark Twain - “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”
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Reply #5 - Jun 28th, 2009 at 5:33pm

skoker   Offline
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You have no idea how devastated me and my brother are about this... Cry

I was him for halloween last year.  My brother was his biggest fan.
 


...
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Reply #6 - Jun 29th, 2009 at 12:10pm

B-Valvs   Ex Member

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He just got his own TV show too. Called Pitchmen of course. It was a pretty good show too:

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/pitchmen/pitchmen.html

There's no way Anthony Sullivan can do it alone.

Cool
 
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Reply #7 - Jun 29th, 2009 at 1:42pm

tcco94   Offline
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Yeah Brandon thats when I started to like him more. Ive seen about 3 episodes and the show isnt as bad as I thought it would be.

Actually I just saw a commercial of him. Sad
 
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Reply #8 - Jun 29th, 2009 at 1:50pm

Romulus111VADT   Offline
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31613908/ns/us_news-life/?GT1=43001

Examiner: Mays likely died of heart attack


Quote:
TAMPA, Fla. - Television pitchman Billy Mays likely died of a heart attack but further tests are needed, a Florida medical examiner said Monday.

Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Vernard Adams said the boisterous, bearded 50-year-old known for hawking Oxiclean suffered from hypertensive heart disease. His wife, Deborah, found him dead Sunday in his Tampa home.

He says Mays was taking the prescription painkillers Tramadol and hydrocodone for hip pain. But Adams says there was no indication of drug abuse, and pill counts showed Mays had been taking the correct amount of the drugs.

Television viewers knew him as the OxiClean guy: the bearded, boisterous pitchman on commercials airing hundreds of times a week nationwide. “Hi. Billy Mays here,” he would begin, before showing off his latest cleaning product or gadget

Police said Mays told his wife he didn’t feel well when he went to bed Saturday night. Earlier in the day, he said he was hit on the head when his airliner had a rough landing at Tampa Bay’s airport.

U.S. Airways confirmed 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.

But the airline said no passengers reported any serious injuries, and Mays himself cheerfully recounted the landing for a local TV station, WTVT-TV, Tampa Bay's Fox television affiliate.

“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.”

Laura Brown, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said she did not know if Mays was wearing his seat belt on the flight because the FAA was not investigating his death.

U.S. Airways spokesman Jim Olson said there were no reports of serious injury due to the landing. “If local authorities have any questions for us about yesterday’s flight, we’ll cooperate fully with them,” he said.

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.

He had his own reality TV show
AJ Khubani, founder and CEO of “As Seen on TV,” said he first met Mays in the early 1990s when Mays was still pitching one of his early products, the Shammy absorbent cloth, at a trade fair. He said he most recently worked with Mays on the reality TV show “Pitchmen” on the Discovery Channel, which follows Mays and Anthony Sullivan in their marketing jobs.

“His innovative role and impact on the growth and wide acceptance of direct response television cannot be overestimated or easily replaced; he was truly one of a kind,” Khubani said in a statement.

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 infomercials followed, anchored by the high-energy Mays using them while tossing out kitschy phrases like, “Long live your laundry!”

Sarah Ellerstein worked closely with Mays when she was a buyer for the Home Shopping Network in the 1990s and he was pitching Orange Glo products.

“Billy was such a sweet guy, very lovable, very nice, always smiling, just a great, great guy,” she said, adding that Mays met his future wife at the network. “Everybody thinks because he’s loud and boisterous on the air that that’s the way he is, but I always found him to be a quiet, down-to-earth person.”

His ubiquity and thumbs-up, in-your-face pitches won Mays plenty of fans for his commercials on a wide variety of products. People lined up at his personal appearances for autographed color glossies, and strangers stopped 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.

His former wife, Dolores “Dee Dee” Mays, of McKees Rocks, recalled that the first product he sold was the Wash-matik, a device for pumping water from a bucket to wash cars.

“I knew him since he was 15, and I always knew he had it in him,” she said of Mays’ success. “He’ll live on forever because he always had the biggest heart in the world. He loved his friends and family and would do anything for them. He was a generous soul and a great father.”

Besides his wife, Mays is survived by a 3-year-old daughter and a stepson in his 20s, police said.



 

"I have a place where dreams are born, And time is never planned. It’s not on any chart, You must find it with your heart."

Albert Einstein - "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."

Martin Luther King Jr. - “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - “There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.”

Mark Twain - “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”
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Reply #9 - Jun 29th, 2009 at 2:29pm

aussiewannabe   Offline
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tcco94 wrote on Jun 28th, 2009 at 3:37pm:
Do you think his commercials will still be aired?

While I'm sorry he passed on, I honestly hope they don't.
A national news organization reported his death and said his commericals aired 400 times a week. Once is enough for me.
 

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Reply #10 - Jun 29th, 2009 at 2:32pm

B-Valvs   Ex Member

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tcco94 wrote on Jun 29th, 2009 at 1:42pm:
Yeah Brandon thats when I started to like him more. Ive seen about 3 episodes and the show isnt as bad as I thought it would be.

Actually I just saw a commercial of him. Sad


Same here. It's cool to see the process of taking a product and making it a success. I was not expecting them to test the products like they did to make sure they do what they claim.

Cool
 
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Reply #11 - Jun 29th, 2009 at 7:38pm

Steve M   Offline
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Rest in peace, Billy. But why were you always YELLING AT US!
 

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Flying with twins is a lot of fun..
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Reply #12 - Jun 29th, 2009 at 7:48pm

Romulus111VADT   Offline
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Steve M wrote on Jun 29th, 2009 at 7:38pm:
Rest in peace, Billy. But why were you always YELLING AT US!


Try turning the volume down, maybe he'd seem a bit more subdued..... Wink

Grin

 

"I have a place where dreams are born, And time is never planned. It’s not on any chart, You must find it with your heart."

Albert Einstein - "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."

Martin Luther King Jr. - “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - “There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.”

Mark Twain - “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”
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Reply #13 - Jun 30th, 2009 at 3:40am

tcco94   Offline
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I read you can watch his last "recorded" episode on Wednesday. It was gunna be a new one... Sad...Now its the last
 
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Reply #14 - Jul 1st, 2009 at 3:11am

BFMF   Offline
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Romulus111VADT wrote on Jun 28th, 2009 at 4:03pm:
Personally, I couldn't stand the man or his annoying commercials. I would normally mute the TV so I wouldn't have to listen to his incredibly annoying voice.


I'm with you. I can't stand his commercials...
 
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