Ron Palillo Dead at 63: “Welcome Back, Kotter” Star Dies from Heart Attack (“Horshack”)

Thirty Mile Zone ^ | 8/14/2012 9:01 AM PDT | TMZ Staff

[Olog-hai]

Ron Palillo—the actor who played Horshack on “Welcome Back, Kotter”—died this morning at his home near Palm Beach, FL from an apparent heart attack … this according to someone close to the actor.

We’re told Palillo was found by his partner of many years, Joseph Gramm, around 4:00 AM. Gramm called an ambulance and Palillo was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

We’re told the heart attack was very unexpected. Palillo was 63. …

[AuH2ORepublican]

Didn’t Marcia Strassman play Rick Moranis’s wife on those Honey, I Shrunk the Kids movies?

Remember when one of the Sweathogs (Epstein?) painted a mural of Mrs. Kotter with a bodacious body in a bikini? He later admitted that the body belonged to Dolores Del Vecchio, but that he had used Mrs. Kotter’s face because she was the only girl he knew who didn’t have acne.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Yup, Strassman played the wives of both Kaplan and Moranis.

BTW, does this mean Travolta and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs get put on deathwatch ?

[Impy]

Well Mickey Rooney was married to Ava Gardener for real so....

I wonder if Moranis will come out of retirement for the planned Ghostbusters 3. I think Bill Murray said no already.

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

The show wasn’t even funny.

And I LOVE Seventies shows.

(Having been born in 1976 I missed out on my favorite shows the first time around.)

[skeeter]

I just didn't think Travolta's ‘what, where’ or Palillo’s ‘ooh,ooh’ over & over (& over) is as uproariously funny as the folks in the audience apparently did.