Pitchman Billy Mays Passes Away

Billy Mays, the television pitchman whose boisterous pitching of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean made him a pop-culture icon, has died. He was 50. Mays’ wife found him unresponsive Sunday morning. A fire rescue crew pronounced him dead at 7:45 am. The initial autopsy indicated that Mays died due to heart disease.

“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. “Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times.”

Born William Mays in McKees Rocks, Pa., on July 20, 1958, Mays developed his style demonstrating knives, mops and other As Seen on TV gadgets on Atlantic City’s boardwalk. For years he worked as a hired gun on the state fair and home show circuits, attracting crowds with his booming voice and genial manner.

After meeting Orange Glo International founder Max Appel at a home show in Pittsburgh in the mid-1990s, Mays was recruited to demonstrate the environmentally friendly line of cleaning products on the St. Petersburg-based Home Shopping Network. Commercials and informercials followed, anchored by the high-energy Mays showing how it’s done while tossing out kitschy phrases like, “Long live your laundry!” His thumbs-up and in-your-face pitches won Mays plenty of fans for his commercials on a wide variety of products. People lined up at his personal appearances for autographed color glossies, and strangers stopped him in airports to chat about the products.

AJ Khubani, founder and CEO of As Seen on TV, said he first met Mays in the early 1990s when Mays was still pitching one of his early products, the Shammy absorbent cloth, at a trade fair. He most recently worked with Mays on the reality TV show Pitchmen on the Discovery Channel, which follows Mays and Anthony Sullivan in their marketing jobs. “His innovative role and impact on the growth and wide acceptance of direct response television cannot be overestimated or easily replaced; he was truly one of a kind,” Khubani said of Mays in a statement.

The Discovery Channel issued a statement: “Everyone that knows him was aware of his larger-than-life personality, generosity and warmth. Billy was a pioneer in his field and helped many people fulfill their dreams. He will be greatly missed as a loyal and compassionate friend. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family at this time of incredible loss.”

Mays had appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien just last week with his Pitchmen partner, Anthony Sullivan.

Anthony “Sully” Sullivan, longtime infomercial pitchman and co-host of “Pitchmen” released the following statement on the passing of his dear friend and colleague:

There are no words to describe how I feel about the passing of my great friend and fellow Pitchman Billy Mays. I have a massive hole in my heart. My thoughts go out to his wife, Deborah, son Billy III, and his beautiful daughter, Elizabeth, his mom and dad and his whole family.

Billy and I have known each other for 15 years. We are the greatest of friends. He was the best at what he did — his uncompromising style coupled with his black beard, blue shirt and khaki pants will be embedded in my memory for all time. His uniqueness created an industry that I am proud to be a part of. We were literally joined at the hip for the past six months.

Discovery Channel’s “Pitchmen” was not only a wonderful experience, but also a great opportunity for Billy and I to let people into our world and see what an awesome guy he was in front of the cameras and show our friendship to the world.

There was a lot more to Billy as a person than Billy the Pitchman — he was a loving, caring family man with the heart and roar of a lion. He loved what he did and loved his fans. The overwhelming outpouring of support shows what an amazing individual Billy was.

I’m proud to have had him as a friend. I’ll miss him greatly and I’ll miss hearing him saying, “Hi Billy Mays here… Here’s how to order!”