Famous Pitchman Passes Away

Television spokesman Billy Mays, who made his living doing commercials and infomercials for household products such as Oxiclean, died Sunday.


According to the Tampa Police Department, Billy, 50, was found unresponsive by his wife at 7:45 a.m. on Sunday. Authorities say that there were no signs of forced entry into Billy's Tampa, FL home, and his autopsy should be complete by Monday afternoon.

Billy was reportedly hit on the head while aboard a US Airways flight on Saturday that made a rough landing. His wife told invesitgators that the television personality didn't feel well before he went to bed on Saturday night.

US Airways confirmed today that Billy was among the passengers on a flight that landed Saturday afternoon at Tampa International Airport, leaving debris on the runway after apparently blowing its front tires.

Tampa Bay's Fox television affiliate interviewed Mays after the incident.

"All of a sudden, as we hit, you know it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping," MyFox Tampa Bay quoted him as saying. "It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head."

Recently, he'd been seen on commercials for a wide variety of products and was featured on the reality TV show Pitchmen on the Discovery Channel, which followed Mays and Anthony Sullivan in their marketing jobs.