WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.
- Ron Palillo, the actor best known as the nerdy high-school student Arnold Horshack on the 1970s sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter," died Tuesday in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He was 63.
Palillo suffered an apparent heart attack at his home about 4 a.m., said Karen Poindexter, a close friend. He was pronounced dead at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center.
Palillo was inextricably linked with the character he played from 1975 to 1979 on "Kotter," the hit ABC sitcom, in which title character Gabe Kotter returns to his Brooklyn alma mater to teach a group of loveable wiseguys known as the Sweathogs. Horshack was the nasally teen who yelped, "Oooh! Ooh!" and shot his hand skyward whenever Kotter posed a question.
The show was a ratings success and pop-cultural phenomenon, injecting smart-aleck phrases such as "Up your nose with a rubber hose" into the mainstream and propelling co-star John Travolta to stardom. But the series lasted only as long as a high-school education and its end, for Palillo, brought difficulty.
He said that he felt exiled throughout the 1980s, unable to find parts, sinking into depression and rarely venturing from his apartment. When offers did come, he felt typecast as Horshack.
Ronald Paolillo was born April 2, 1949, in Cheshire, Conn., eventually dropping the first "o" from his surname. He was 10 when his father died of lung cancer, and he developed a stutter. His mother thought that getting him involved in a local theater might help. He fell in love with the stage and overcame his speech impediment.
He attended the University of Connecticut and earned parts in Shakespearean productions before his big break.
He told interviewers that his dying father's voice inspired Horshack's trademark wheezing laugh, but when he auditioned for "Kotter" he thought that he'd be passed over for others who had more of a tough-guy New York look. The casting agents knew better, and so did Gabe Kaplan, who played Kotter.
"When Ron walked into the audition and did his first line, 'Hello, how are you, I'm Arnold Horshack,' I said, 'That's him, that's the guy,' " Kaplan recalled.
His last act in life mirrored his most famous one, in a real-life classroom instead of one at the fictional James Buchanan High School. Palillo taught acting at G-Star School of the Arts, a high school in West Palm Beach. He was due to return for the school year Tuesday morning, Poindexter said, and classes were to resume next week.
Palillo is survived by his partner of 41 years, Joseph Gramm; two brothers and a sister.