Infomercial king—much like that other American king—found dead at age 50.
Billy Mays, the TV pitchman whose trademark voice helped sell everything from cleaning supplies to baking soda, was found dead this morning by his wife at his Tampa home. No cause of death has been reported and no foul play is suspected, according to Tampa police.
“Although Billy lived a public life, we don’t anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days,” Deborah Mays said in a statement today. “Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times.”
Mays was a passenger Saturday of a 737 airplane that had a front tire blow out, said spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan. Mays and other passengers were interviewed by US Airways staff after the Philadelphia flight’s hard landing. Responders reported no injuries.
You seemed like a good dude, Billy Mays.
I’m sure God had a plan. Perhaps the angels in heaven were under the impression that they needed a cabinet full of cleaners.
countdown to the death of patrick swayze and steve jobs to complete the next set of 3
this one is the worst imo because of pitchmen which is/was a pretty good show and really personal, i feel really bad for everyone on it
The third may be Walter Cronkite. His family says he is on his death bed.
Jackson my have died fro from too much Oxycontin. I wonder if Mays died from too much Oxyclean?
TO PROPERLY HONOR HIS MEMORY, THIS WHOLE POST SHOULD BE IN ALL-CAPS.
Careful, or you’ll become the Stranger’s go-to chick for snide obits…
@2 – THIRD?!! If only… Over the last 7 days, there’s been Ed McMahon (Monday), Sky Saxon of The Seeds (Wed.), Farrah & MJJ (Thursday) & now the Screamapiller. That’s five (that I know of) and there’s still 2 days left to the month. When did June take over the “cruellest month” spot from April?
@5 sorry if you have to say what band they are in they aren’t famous enough to be counted
What is with these guys croaking at the relatively young age of 50? Were they really living that hard of a life?
he finally found something orange glo couldn’t do.
He was just on the Tonight Show.
To expand on the “no injuries” thing Lindy quoted, this is from his wiki page:
“None of the 138 passengers and five crew members were reported to be seriously injured immediately following the incident, but several passengers reported having bumps and bruises from falling objects. [ 2 ] Mays told the local Tampa TV station that some of the objects “hit me on the head, but I got a hard head.” [ 14 ] It is unclear whether Mays’ death was related to the incident.”
Memorials for Billy Mays have been planned in the cleaning-supply aisles of Home Depots around the country.
Billy had been planning a 50-city tour — dubbed “This is It — OxyClean’s Dangerous Tour — for which he had been rehearsing for several weeks.
Mourners have left empty bottle of the cleaning agent, as well as clothes they simply couldn’t get spots out of — in front of his Tampa home.
eBay reported a run on OxyClean products.
Internet traffic slowed to a crawl as news of his death spread on Web sites.
The Seattle Gay News is planning a special Billy Mays memorial edition.
Its editor said, “Billy Mays was our community’s inspiration for keeping the tidiest household possible. OxyClean was even just wonderful for cleaning 100 percent cute rayon shirts we couldn’t resist buying on that fantastic vacation my partner and I took to the South Seas.”
God? Angels? Heaven? What the fuck is up with that?
He’s fucking dead – I don’t think he’s standing in line with Peter Pan and Tinkerbell waiting for a harp, halo and wings. Sheesh.
Adding insult to… death, they cleaned up his remains with a ShamWow.
@13: Nicely done.
I guess I’m in the minority, but I don’t find shouting a convincing method of persuasion, whether in politics, punditry, or advertising. For some time now, whenever a Billy Mays commercial comes on the tube I change the channel as soon as I can. I have the same reaction to ads featuring another overly loud multiproduct pitchman, whose name escapes me — Terry something?
But again, I’m apparently in the minority, and notwithstanding my personal feelings about his work, my condolences go out to Billy Mays’ family, friends, and fans.
My condolences to Mr. May’s family, and friends.
Any word on whether President Obama called the Widow Mays to offer condolences?
This has me bummed the most. MJ was awesome, but he hadn’t been awesome for a good 15 years. Billy Mays was awesome NOW.
Yes, this makes me sad. If it turns out that he did die as a delayed reaction from the head blow on the flight, that would be an eerie coincidence coming so soon after the similar death of Natasha Richardson. This has been a deadly year for celebrities.
I feel a little guilty even mentioning this, but I always thought Billy Mays was really hot, kind of like a real-life version of all those idealized bear drawings.
Billy Mays was kind of a replacement father figure. Except instead of yelling at me to clean my room, I was being yelled at to buy cleaning products.
RIP, man.
I always thought he was kind of cute and I also thought that his style was rather on the high obnoxiousity level.
He did seem like a good dude. Rest in peace.
By the way, can someone tell me how to block certain commenters? #15 is really annoying. Much obliged.
Is it at all possible for comments on a Slog story to NOT include someone’s statement that they think X is/was “hot?” No, I guess not.
#15’s a bot and only the Slog can block it.
one less person to make the poor poorer
@3 HAS IT RIGHT! AAAAAAAAAAAGH! BUY WHATEVER USELESS TRINKETS I’M PEDDLING RIGHT NOW!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG! BILLY MAYS HERE!!!!!!!! YEAAAAAAAAAAARGH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!! BUY MY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m sorry that people die and that it’s hard on their families, but come ON, he was a fucking huckster. Am not gonna weep for the death of this salesman.
A FUCKING HUCKSTER??? LOOK,ASSHOLES,SHOW SOME RESPECT FOR THE DEAD!!!YOU RESPECT THIS PERSON OR ANYONE ELSE LIKE IT WAS ANY OF YOUR FAMLIY O.K.!!!RINSE YOUR MOUTHS WITH A BOTTLE OF OXYCLEAN AND EAT A BUNCH OF MIGHTY PUTTY,AND THINK ABOUT IT!!!HE HELPED SELL MORE INVENTION’S THAN ANY ONE OF YOU DID,I DIDN’T SEE YOU DOING HIS JOB!!!TRUE,HE WAS A LITTLE PUSHEY,BUT HE HAD A WIFE AND KIDS TO LOOK AFTER!!!