More sad news to pass along today … Billy Mays, perhaps the most successful infomercial pitchman of all time, has passed away today at the age of 50. According to police, Mays was found by his wife early this morning in their Tampa, FL home and was pronounced dead a short time after. Strangely enough, Mays was on board an airplane that suffered a tire blow-out last night before his death this morning but neither he nor any of the other passengers on board were seriously injured as a result (well, that we know of). His cause of death is not yet known:
Television pitchman Billy Mays — who built his fame by appearing on commercials and infomercials promoting household products and gadgets — died Sunday, FOX News confirms. Mays was found unresponsive by his wife inside his Tampa, Fla., home at 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, according to the Tampa Police Department. Police said there were no signs of forced entry to May’s residence and foul play is not suspected. Authorities said an autopsy should be complete by Monday afternoon. Mays, 50, was on board a US Airways flight that blew out its front tires as it landed at a Tampa airport on Saturday, MyFOXTampa.com reported. US Airways spokesman Jim Olson said that none of the 138 passengers and five crew members were injured in the incident, but several passengers reported having bumps and bruises, according to the station. Authorities have not said whether Mays’ death was related to the incident. “Although Billy lived a public life, we don’t anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days. Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times,” Mays wife, Deborah, said in a statement on Sunday.
Wow! This would be the 4th death in the “celeb world” in under a week! Not that Billy Mays was a celeb but he was well-known here in the US for his infomercials for various products for sale on TV (among them OxiClean, Kaboom!, Mighty Putty, Orange Glo and more). In recent months, Mays faced small competition from pitchman Vince Offer (of ShamWow fame) who attempted to steal some of Mays‘s thunder but his controversial private life ensured that Billy Mays‘s title as King of Infomercials stayed intact. I even got to see Billy Mays in person when he appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno a couple of months ago. He was a guest on one of the eps that featured Prince as the musical guest. He looked happy and thrilled to be part of Jay Leno‘s final shows as host of The Tonight Show. All life is precious and altho Billy Mays was not as famous as Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson or Ed McMahon, I’m sure his loss greatly affects many people — his family most especially. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends today … Rest well, Billy.
UPDATE: TMZ is reporting that Billy Mays was injured on that US Airways flight that suffered two blown tires upon landing last night (before he died). According to TMZ, Billy himself reported that he was struck in the head with something upon landing … he even mentioned the plane landing on his official Twitter account which, turns out, was his last tweet ever:
The FAA is already deflecting blame for the death of Billy Mays — claiming the legendary TV pitchman wasn’t wearing a seat belt when he took a shot to the head during a rough landing on a flight he was on yesterday. Here’s what we know — Billy Mays was aboard US Airways Flight 1241 flying from Philadelphia, which landed roughly when the front tire blew out as it touched down. After the flight, Billy told FOX 13 in Tampa that something struck him in the head — here’s Billy’s actual quote: “All of a sudden as we hit you know it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping. It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head.” We called the FAA for comment, and a spokesperson told us, “The passenger needs to wear a seat belt during landing and he didn’t.” A spokesperson for US Airways did not want to comment until more information comes to light.
Here is the tweet that Billy Mays posted upon landing last night:
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.
The plot thickens. We won’t know the official cause of death until the autopsy is completed on Monday. Wow.
Jesus Christ. Everytime I talk about someone they die! I was talking about Farrah Fawcett and how much I loved her a week ago, she dies. I talked about how much I loved the Thriller music video, Michael Jackson dies. I talk aobut how much I hate those informercials and how he screams in them, he dies!!! I don’t like this… :(
Oh yeah. Rest in peace, man.
WHAT THE CRAP, DUDE?! Is there some sort of dying bug going on in Hollywood?! XP
WHAT?! Man, this week sucks. McMahon, Farrah, MJ and now Billy?! God, what is this world coming to? All the awesome people are dying!!
@Sarah… could you please start talking about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il and Mariah Carey? Thanks.
@Bleeding Ears, that’s not really funny to wish death on people even though you are kidding, if you don’t like them then keep it to yourself.
I always found him rather annoying until I watched his show on discovery channel. He and his pal (and other pitchman) Anthony Scully had a great dynamic and are fun to watch. They’ve done a lot of things to help burgeoning entrepreneurs. Sad news.
OMG!! I was just watching pitchmen this morning!!! What is happening??? David Carradine, Ed McMahon, Farrah Faucet, Michael Jackson, and now Billy… so weird!
holy SH!T! oh my god, this is ridiculous! EVERYONE–stay in your homes!
@Alex… aside from Mariah Carey, you didn’t know who the other two people were and will now google them, right?
holy cow, its true! death must come in three.
@katmow — Sadly, we’ve moved beyond “the 3″. Billy was the 4th death this week alone ;(
“What the hell?!” was what I said out loud when I heard this news. This is the fourth cool person to die within the week. I really can’t take it at this point. Cool people: please live a while longer.
OMG! WTF?! this is completely shocking. i use to not like Billy Mays much until i started watching Pitchmen on discovery channel, Billy & Sully made a great comedic team you couldn’t help but love them. i bet Sully is devastated by this news, they seemed to genuinely care for one another as friends and business partners.
whether people believe it or not Billy was a celebrity in his own right, he worked hard to build his empire and he deserves to be respected for that.
another great loss at a very young age =(
@ Bleeding Ears, You’re right I don’t know the other 2, I didn’t google them, That’s not my point, I was just saying it’s not cool 2 wish others dead. SO if they died would that make you happy?
sky saxon died thursday as well.
this is so effing random!! what is this?!!
This is a huge Deja Vu from last summer. We lost so many talented people in masses last year around this time, it’s unfortunate it’s happening again.
@Alex, watch the news.
That’s crazy about Billy Mays. I loved the guy, his infomercials always made me smile.
This is crazy, why are people dropping so quickly?!? Well we have one more to go.
that’s a good picture of him.
Trent, he was also on the Tonight Show with Conan last week! I had just watched that episode on Hulu. Awww. Conan basically made fun of his products the whole time which was hilarious, but now it’s kind of sad.
This is insane. Thank god the week is almost over.
Damn 50 is the new DEAD
@Alex… not surprising you don’t know who the other two people are and not surprising you’ve not googled them to find out. That would require you become informed about the world and clearly you’re only capable of making uneducated comments to me. Tsk tsk… what a waste.
You’re right I don’t watch the news because I don’t care for the news! It’s all about hatred and war it’s not my style. I keep myself informed on what I believe is relevant and glueing my ass to CNN an hour a day is not important to me. I am all for peace and I was not making an uneducated comment I was just simply saying that people shouldn’t wish others dead. It’s not the people that you mentioned that I was talking about it’s just the principle of what you said. You have no right to call me a waste, you don’t even know who I am. Seems like you just made an assumption that’s hypocritical, go google me :)
@alex you have egg on your face and don’t know it, bub.
@ alex um… wow. the iran election, north korea shooting missiles don’t ring a bell?
@ Alex Don’t listen 2 these people, you’re right you shouldn’t say things like that 2 ppl.
Alex,I suggest that you stop talking about your lack of knowledge of the world. It’s kinda embarassing. I hope you are not over the age of 16.
i am curious what the faa has to do with it… us airway is responsible right? if that is the cause of his death the head injury… then the airline is at fault not the faa i would think. idk. sad turn of events this week is too much, i don’t think i could handle any more losses. we lost a family member here too so that makes 5 for me. too too many!
Alex, don’t be proud you don’t know who those guys are…be humble about it ignorance is not something to be proud of. Since you seem to be a little confused it would be like wishing Hitler dead.
The FAA’s comment seemed a little insensative… Thoughts and prayers to the Mays family.
R.I.P Billy. I wonder if he had head injury similar to Natasha Richardson.
@Amy — That very well may be … we should find out very soon.
What I don’t get is…how is the fact that he didn’t have a seatbelt on relevent? I mean, yes…you should have your seatbelt on, but if something falls on you, it’s gonna do damage with or without a seatbelt. Now, if he died cause he went flying down the cabin and headfirst into a wall, then maybe the seatbelt would have made a difference.
way too much deathing happening in the past week. RIP.
I’m MORE shocked by Billy Mays’ death. He actually looked healthy.
NOO!!! Who else is going to yell at me to buy crappy products!
Seriously though, truly shocking, RIP Billy.
I just said yesterday that if I could chose to meet one person it would be Billy Mays. He had such dynamic and was a truly hilarious man. I am very upset about his passing, and I know that his family is at a complete loss right now. I suggest that you send a reply to his son on twitter (twitter.com/youngbillymays)…. i know he has been reading them all day and he has really appreciated everything everyone has said.
Also, wear blue tomorrow in honor of him. He will be greatly missed…
I find it funny yet sad that the FAA is claiming that his failure to wear a seatbelt could be the culprit. I fly enough to know that wearing my seatbelt will not prevent items falling from the overhead bins. Now, if he bumped/jumped upward as a result of the rough landing, then they might have somthing, but it sounded like something fell on his head, not that he bumped it.
How does the FAA KNOW he didn’t have his seatbelt on at the time of the problem?
@Alex I can’t believe you don’t know who Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong Il are, you should be embarassed of yourself. You are clearly a simpleton who won’t benefit anybody in the world with your presense please go find a hole and bury yourself in it and stop troubling the world with you inane comments
sad, I always kinda found him hot for some bizzare reason
Oh my god. I can’t believe Billy Mays is dead. It’ll be so weird watching tv without his commercials!! And I feel really bad for him, because he was doing so well with his new tv show. RIP BILLY MAYS! Anyway, nice post.