Robert Hegyes, played Epstein on ‘Kotter,’ dies
Robert Hegyes, the actor best known for playing Jewish Puerto Rican student Juan Epstein on the 1970s TV show Welcome Back Kotter has died. He was 60.
Epstein
A spokesman at JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.J., told the Star-Ledger newspaper that Hegyes, of Metuchen, arrived at the hospital Thursday morning in full cardiac arrest and died.
Hegyes was appearing on Broadway in 1975 when he auditioned for Kotter, a TV series about a teacher who returns to the inner-city New York school of his youth to teach a group of irreverent remedial students nicknamed the Sweathogs. They included the character Vinnie Barbarino, played by John Travolta.
Hegyes also appeared on many other TV series, including Cagney Lacey. He was born in Perth Amboy and grew up in Metuchen, the eldest child of a Hungarian father and Italian mother.
He attended Rowan University, formerly Glassboro State College, in southern New Jersey, before heading to New York City after graduation. He returned to Rowan on several occasions to teach master classes in acting, a university spokesman said Thursday.
On his website, Hegyes wrote that he was inspired by Chico Marx, whom he had played in a touring production of a show about the Marx Bros. He also recalled how his mother encouraged him to get involved in theater as a teen.
Read it all at www.pbpulse.com
Rick Kaempfer: RIP Epstein
I'll admit that I had a moment of panic this morning when I heard on the radio that Epstein died unexpectedly. I thought they were referring to Theo. Nope. It was Robert Hegyes, who played Epstein on Welcome Back Kotter.
Farewell, Juan Luis Pedro Felipo de Huevos Epstein | Dlisted
Robert Hegyes, mostly known for playing Sweathog Epstein on Welcome Back, Kotter, is entertaining the angels with his Chico Marx impersonation this morning, because he passed away of cardiac arrest at a hospital in New …
Robert Hegyes Dead – 'Welcome Back, Kotter' Juan Epstein Died …
Robert Hegyes has died. Actor famous for Welcome Back, Kotter character Juan Epstein dead of apparent heart attack on January 26, 2012.
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