TV pitchman Billy Mays found dead

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Registered: 02-08-2009
TV pitchman Billy Mays found dead
9
Sun, 06-28-2009 - 1:10pm

Spirited TV pitchman Billy Mays was found dead at his Tampa home earlier this morning, police said.


Mays, 50, lent his trademark booming voice to infomercials for products like OxiClean and Orange Glo.


His wife, Deborah Mays, found him at their home Sunday morning, the Associated Press reported. Tampa police said there were no signs of a break in or foul play.


(more)

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/06/28/2009-06-28_tv_pitchman_billy_mays_found_dead_in_florida_home.html#ixzz0JkIAe3P2&D




Edited 6/28/2009 1:12 pm ET by karotini
Avatar for claddagh49
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2004
Sun, 06-28-2009 - 6:11pm
ARRGH! his commercials drove me nuts! I am very sorry for th e loss his wife must feel and his family and friends. What a freak accident, getting hit in the head from something falling from an overhead compartment in an airplane. It had to of hit the ground pretty hard to have compartments pop open! Every flight I have been on no one was supposed to be opening them and taking stuff out until the plane landed and we were told we could.
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Registered: 03-09-2001
Mon, 06-29-2009 - 12:26am
I am sorry about the loss of life and for his wife, and any other family, for their loss. To be honest, DH & I couldn't stand him, either, though. ROFL! We muted the TV and paid attention to the dog when those awful commercials came on. Just too loud and obnoxious a hawking style for us. :O




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Avatar for claddagh49
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2004
Mon, 06-29-2009 - 8:14am
Exactly! I feel bad mostly for his family and friends who loved him. But what a freak accident!
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-23-2008
Mon, 06-29-2009 - 11:02am

It's ashamed that he died so young from a freak accident.


I, too, hated his loud mouth commercials, I always wondered why he had to yell out his words.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2001
Mon, 06-29-2009 - 12:18pm
Last news online I read did *not* link the accident on the airplane with his death at all, though...



http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=7954000



From the article:



"But the airline said no passengers reported any serious injuries, and Mays himself cheerfully recounted the landing for a local TV station. His wife, Deborah, found him unresponsive Sunday morning.



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



(article continues...)





Guess we'll have to wait for the autopsy for something conclusive...




Blessings,

Gypsy





Photobucket



"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.

It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.

It is the little shadow which runs across the grass

and loses itself in the sunset.



- Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator



Photobucket Photobucket



Dog fighting is cruelty, which is a human activity and a human illness.

It's not the dog's fault.

All dogs need to be evaluated as individuals."

--Tim Racer, one of BAD RAP's founders



http://www.badrap.org/rescue/



Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket Photobucket



Mika Dog




"All things share the same breath;

the beast, the tree, the man.

The Air shares its spirit with

all the life it supports."

--Chief Seattle



"If there are no dogs in Heaven,

then when I die I want to go where they went."

~Will Rogers



"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress

can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

~~Mahatma Gandhi











Blessings,

Gypsy

)O(



Avatar for claddagh49
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2004
Mon, 06-29-2009 - 1:47pm

Ok, let me say this. If he was due to have hip replacement shortly, he would have been in the hospital for pre-opt testing. If something was not right with him, then it may have possibly got picked up in one of those several tests.


He had a history of a knock on his head. It may have seemed like nothing at the time,but he felt ill later,so, I'm saying it could possibly be from the knock on his head.


Remember, if you have had a possible concussion, they don't want you to sleep.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-11-2009
Mon, 06-29-2009 - 2:45pm

It is increasingly looking like Mays died of heart disease:


http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090629/D994G1OO0.html


Medical examiner: Pitchman Mays had heart disease



Jun 29, 1:59 PM (ET)


By MITCH STACY


TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Television pitchman Billy Mays likely died of a heart attack in his sleep, but further tests are needed to be sure of the cause of death, a medical examiner said Monday.


Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Vernard Adams said Mays suffered from hypertensive heart disease, and the wall of the left ventricle of Mays' heart and the wall of one of his arteries were enlarged. The boisterous, bearded 50-year-old known for hawking OxiClean and other products on national commercials was found dead Sunday by his wife in their Tampa condominium.


"The heart disease is perfectly consistent with sudden death," Adams said.


An official cause of death will be issued after toxicology and other tests are completed in eight to 10 weeks.


"While it provides some closure to learn that heart disease took Billy from us, it certainly doesn't ease the enormous void that his death has created in our lives," his wife, Deborah, said in a statement. "As you can imagine, we are all devastated."


Adams said Mays was taking the prescription painkillers Tramadol and hydrocodone for hip pain, but there was no indication of drug abuse. Mays had planned to have hip-replacement surgery Monday.


Mays told his wife he didn't feel well when he went to bed sometime after 10 p.m. Saturday. Earlier in the day, he said he was hit on the head when his flight from Philadelphia had a rough landing at Tampa International Airport. The airline said no passengers reported serious injuries.


Adams said the autopsy showed no evidence of head trauma.


In a 911 tape released Monday, a frantic woman tells emergency operators she found Mays cold and unresponsive. The woman isn't identified, but police have said Deborah Mays found her husband dead.


When asked what had happened, the caller says she doesn't know.


A second person got on the phone as the operator encourages them to get Mays on the floor to start CPR.


"We can't get him up, ma'am," the woman says. "He's gone."


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, now known as HSN.


Commercials and informercials followed, anchored by the high-energy Mays using them while tossing out kitschy phrases like, "Long live your laundry!"


HSN released a statement Monday morning, praising Mays as a "legend in the electronic retail history whose personality, entrepreneurial spirit and thoughtfulness for others have always been larger than life."


His ubiquitousness 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.


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

 

Avatar for claddagh49
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2004
Mon, 06-29-2009 - 2:56pm

Ok, so guess his head bump wasn't it. I can assume he knew he had heart disease? Would that of shown up in a pre-test before his hip surgery? Don't they do an EKG on you before surgeries? Well, whatever it was, it's a shame for his wife and family.


This happend in my area locally. My Dh and I go to this Farmer's Market usually one a week. They have this announcer who hawks the specials and where they can be located. Well, this past Saturday he died! He was 85 yrs old. Why the heck they sent an old man like that up on the roof to check a problem with the air conditioner system. Anyway, poor guy got electrocuted!

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Registered: 12-25-2008
Mon, 06-29-2009 - 4:14pm
He was hypertensive as well, something almost impossible for a doc to miss even during a routine exam much less in relation to a pre-op exam for major surgery.

 


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