Billy Mays Dead At 50
You have to wonder if before going to sleep last night, pitchman Billy Mays thought of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon, and said to himself one last time, "but wait, there's more!"
The OxyClean pitchman was found dead this morning in his Tampa home. No foul play is suspected, although the wires are reporting that Mays might have hit his head yesterday when a U.S. Airways flight he was on blew out a tire while landing.
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."
His emphatic gesticulations will be missed.
TV pitchman Billy Mays found dead in Tampa home [Tampa Bay Online] (Thanks to everyone who submitted!)
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Comments:
"But wait, there's more!?"
Oh, SNAP!
I lost two of my heroes this week. MJ and now Billy.
R.I.P
I always thought Billy Mays was one of the more tolerable TV pitchmen. Sure, he was loud, rather annoying, and looks sort of like that one guy from Home Improvement, but, lets face it, he had a FANTASTIC beard.
And he's never told me that "THOUSANDS OF MEN AVOID SEXUAL INTIMACY BECAUSE OF THEIR SIZE IN BED" at least once a night.
Billy Mays' last twitter:
"Just had a close call landing in Tampa. The tires blew out upon landing. Stuck in the plane on the runway. You can always count on US Air."
I've so far managed to live my life without seeing a Billie Mays infomercial.
I'm quite pleased to report that odds favor this winning streak to continue unabated.
Yay, ME!
Apparently Billy was also going in for a hip replacement tomorrow. He was a great and wonderful man.
Questionable products but great pitchman .. thoughts are with his family
The blurb/first paragraph here is kind of in bad taste.
Maybe now Michael Jackson will be relegated to page 2.
TMZ is reporting that he'd hit his head hard during a rough airplane landing the previous day, because he wasn't wearing his seatbelt, and so may have died of a subdural hematoma. If true, I'm sorry, ghost of Billy, but that was just dumb of you.
Thanks for introducing me to OxyClean, Mr. Mays. That stuff is great.
I just turned on my browser, and Yahoo came up and there it was. I was like WHAT???
THEY'RE DROPPING LIKE FLIES!!!!!
Man, I actually liked this guy. Now what, I have to buy my as seen on TV products from fugly, hooker beating creeps
@Xanaxian: No, TMZ is reporting that the FAA said he wasn't wearing his seat belt. Billy says overhead items were falling and he got hit on the head. The front tires blew out and many passengers had bumps and bruises. They were stuck on the plane for hours before being allowed off. I'm skeptical of the "not wearing a seat belt" claim.
There is the old wives tale of death coming in three's. My condolence to his family. As stated earlier, he was loud and in your face but he seemed like a good guy.
Billy Mays was entertaining to watch. Pitchmen was pretty awesome too. This really kinda sucks and I feel for his wife Immensely.
@Sheogorath: I'm of the same opinion - one of the more tolerable personalities .
Alot of people can't stand him but I hate the informercials withOUT him especially . He did his job and drew attention to the products he pitched . He seemed like a more sincere pitchman .
And unlike recent celeberty deaths (not taking anything away from them) but here's a guy with a family who was taken out of life at THE PRIME of his active career which was still going higher . I just saw him on the Tonight show last week and have seen his show Pitchmen .
Rest In Peace Billy Mays
Looks like the ShamWow guy just got his big break.
Sorry the guy died but slightly relieved that my ears won't be assaulted while I dive for the mute button any longer.
I have to wonder if the already existing commercials will be played by those companies or if they will drop them out of some sort of respect.
Wow... just saw him on Conan a few days ago. He looked great.
I'm gonna pour a 40 of Orange Glo on the curb for you, Mr. Mays.
They are saying he was on that US Air flight yesterday that had the rough landing, and he was hit on the head by a piece of luggage.
He was supposedly fine, and then he didn't wake up this morning.
@Jp McCarthy: Really bad taste, what the hell is wrong with people. The dude is dead which means no more infomercials (with him in it) to talk about, hate, like whatever. These blog writers need a class on empathy...assholes.
@hedonia: Maybe it's how you interpret his post, but I didn't see anything particularly awful in it.
Unless of course he meant that Billy's death significantly lowers the odds that he'll ever see one of his commercials, in which case, yeah, that's a bit insensitive.
Was one of the few that I noticed and would grab my attention on somethings instead of just flipping the channel right away.
I couldn't stand this guy when he first appearing on TV years ago. But then I mellowed out and would chuckle when bumping into his commercials. He was a good guy.
It's a shame. My condolences to the family
@Xanaxian: IMO, the greatest probability (assuming he didn't just have an unanticipated heart attack) is that he suffered a pulmonary embolism because of having been on a flight, rather than a random, apparently minor bump on the noggin.
He was loved in a special unique way. You could tell that he really was having a great time, and believed in what he was doing. Even though it was sometimes irritating, he was damn good at what he did. Everyone should be so lucky.
Now, Billy's going to make a killing selling Oxy-Clean to keep the Angel's robes sparkling white, and Orange-Glo to keep those halos polished to perfection. Going for the big close.
God bless his family, too.
"But wait, there's more!" was Ron Popeil's thing, not Billy Mays
@Cyberxion101: His concern seems to be more with his streak than the death of a decent seeming guy that was in the public spotlight.
Sometimes it's alright to joke about someones death. In case anyone is wondering, the day of is too soon.
Goodbye, Billy Mays. I loved Pitchmen and you always made me laugh. Now, I think I may cry if I see another Oxiclean commerical.
So USAir killed him. Hopefully they will sue them.
Everyone forgets Carradine is in the cadre of recently deceased celebrities -
Carradine
Fawcett
Jackson
McMahon
Mays
Nearly -
Cronkite
@Jp McCarthy: Oh please. Why does the passing of someone (who coincidentally NONE of you know) have to be such a somber, stick up the ass affair. Tear drops and flowers all around, oh GOD we will miss him so much!!!!
I can't speak for him, but personally I hope my funeral is more like a keg party than.. well.. a funeral. With explicit instructions to kick everyone out that displays "shock and contempt!" at the lack of respect for the dead.
I never quite understood this thing we have about those that have past on and our feelings towards them, meaning the whole respect for the dead/family thing. I've always thought & said the same about someone when dead as alive, not that anyone should go out of their way to take a particular opportunity in the death to bash the departed unecessarily. I'm not really a fan of anyone who makes their living hawking products to generally less savy consumers that would otherwise not buy the product if more fully informed of costs (S&H, additional seperate S&H, etc.), alternatives, and drawbacks (to me a lack of full disclosure & twisted stats/statements are lies). I guess I'm just not enough of a capitalist to appreciate this sort of marketing.
@lvixen: Yes, I'm sure that in the WHOLE WORLD, there's JUST these three people (actually its four so I don't know why you said that anyways) that just died!! Omg! It must be fate.
How awful for his family. I'm surprised by how bummed out I am. The fact that he pitched Oxyclean, and Oxyclean is awesome, made me a bit less skeptical of other products that he pitched. RIP Billy.
@seamer: It is a bit weird seeing all these iconic folk passing. I can't say Mays did anything for me but if there were a "king of barkers" category, I'd have a hard time coming up with anybody more deserving.
Kung Fu
70's postergirl
Pop
Sidekick
Barker
News
That's a lot of Kings. Enough for now, please.
HI BILLY MAYS HERE WITH ANOTHER FANTASTIC PRODUCT..
I'm gonna miss that =/