Mr. Mays, who was found dead this morning by his wife in their home was one of the loudest and perhaps as a consequence one of the most familiar voices on American television. Much of the discussion on Twitter and on Mays fan sites involved speculation that a rough landing Saturday night at the Tampa airport, caused by a blown front tire on a U.S. Airways flight Philadelphia, might have been a factor in his death. An autopsy is scheduled to be completed on Monday.
In a week unusually rife with celebrity death, it’s a little spooky to note that the king of pop, Michael Jackson, and the king of pitchmen, Billy Mays, were born within about six weeks of each other in 1958.
He had recently emerged from the infomercial ghetto with a reality show, “Pitchmen” on the Discovery Channel, in which he and his fellow pitchman Anthony Sullivan judged inventors’ proposals for new products.
In a week unusually rife with celebrity death, it’s a little spooky to note that the king of pop, Michael Jackson, and the king of pitchmen, Billy Mays, were born within about six weeks of each other in 1958.
He had recently emerged from the infomercial ghetto with a reality show, “Pitchmen” on the Discovery Channel, in which he and his fellow pitchman Anthony Sullivan judged inventors’ proposals for new products.
