Robert Hegyes, Welcome Back Kotter Star, Dies at 60

Actor Robert Hegyes, one among the celebrities of the 70s sitcom “Welcome Back Kotter” died nowadays of a plain heart attack.

Hegyes was best known for his role as the Puerto Rican-Jew on that show — Juan Luis Pedro Phillipo de Huevos Epstein. Epstein for short.

An apparent heart attack was the cause. He was 60.

Hegyes, a new Jersey native who additionally co-starred on Cagney and Lacey and taught categories at his alma mater, Rowan University, was best known for his role on Kotter.

Alongside John Travolta, he played one among the remedial students called the Sweathogs, who reunited in 2011 at the TV Land Awards for the show’s 35th anniversary.

Robert Hegyes wrote that he modeled swaggering, skirt-chasing Epstein once Chico Marx, whom he played in an exceedingly national touring production of an evening With Groucho.

He was a big fan of the Marx Brothers: “They were immigrant Jews, i was an immigrant Italian. Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Gummo, and Zeppo were intellectuals.”

Hegyes was in his New Jersey home this morning when he suffered the heart attack. He died at JFK Medical Center in Edison, NJ

Tags: carlos gutierrez, epstein, morgellons disease, pat sajak, robert hegyes