Robert Hegyes, aka "Juan Epstein," RIP

Blog Wp-Content Uploads 2008 06 Juanepstein "Hey, Mr. Kotter, I got a note!" Robert Hegyes who played Juan Luis Pedro Philippo DeHuevos Epstein on "Welcome Back Kotter" has died.
"Robert Hegyes dies at 60" (Variety)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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grimc

RIP.

Also: James Woods?!?
- Spriggan_Prime
  
  wow. the man does not age like us petty mortals.
- http://www.richardsnotes.org Richard
  
  This was the very first episode and James Woods’ only appearance.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_Back,_Kotter
  
  Amazing to watch this.
Antinous / Moderator

Eleven years in Palm Springs and my biggest celebrity run-in was being two tables away from Horshack at a restaurant. Everybody else runs into Brad Pitt or George Clooney.
- oasisob1
  
  This makes you the lucky one.
  - Donald Petersen
    
    oasis ain’t lyin’. I’ve sat two tables away from Mick Jagger and the Dalai Lama simultaneously at the Paramount commissary, and I’d much rather have met Horshack.
http://twitter.com/markjohnh Mark John Hiemstra

Holy crap. James Woods was on the debate team.
http://orbitnet.com JIMWICh

Will he be embalmed via a rubber hose up his nose?

(sorry, too soon I know…)
- grimc
  
  I, for one, consider that a tribute.
Scott Croom

Oh my God, I think I actually still have that copy of Dynamite. Man, I loved that magazine when I was a kid. Oh, the sublime ecstasy that was the visit from the book fair ladies.
- Halloween Jack
  
  Dynamite was, as they didn’t say back in the day, the shiznit. (They did, however, say “Dy-no-mite!” a la Jimmie Walker.) It was the first place that I read of the planned Star Trek revival.
ToMajorTom

Oh, little Juan. One of my first youthful man-crushes. I think it was the chest hair.
http://www.vitamincm.com VitaminCM

He was an acting professor at my college in the early 90′s. We used to walk past his classroom amazed that a sweathog was a teach at our college. Rowan University in NJ.
R.I.P. Professor Epstien
BombBlastLightingWaltz

Great clip, BoomBoom’s sermon was epic. Rest in peace Bob
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

How sad.

Many years ago, when I still lived in NY, I remember seeing Hegyes, very much in his Epstein persona, in an advertisement for some local business. It might have been a furniture place, maybe a used car place.
hypersomniac

Any television series from the 70s or early 80s if you mention it will make members of my family get weepy-eyed. I hope you enjoyed your time here on Earth, friend. Although, I’m more of a Freaks and Geeks and Community guy myself.
hypersomniac

And with that, please read Curtis White’s ‘Memories of My Father Watching TV’.
Comman Dax

Good night, Epstein. You made a difference to me.
medontlivenoprahsworld

One of my favorite shows from youth.
I last remember seeing Hegyes on the Love Boat (maybe more than once) after the Kotter show was canceled.
Debra Lee Scott passed away a couple of years ago as well. I always liked her nickname “Hotsie Totsie” and her father the Rev. Totsie.

R.I.P. Mr. Hegyes.
BarBarSeven

R.I.P. “They were immigrant Jews, and I was an immigrant Italian. Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Gummo, and Zeppo were intellectuals… They all played the piano and took music lessons, and they were all juvenile delinquents; I could definitely relate.”
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/celebrities/index.ssf/2012/01/robert_hegyes_juan_epstein_of.html
jarmstrong

Juan was late because he was too busy being awesome. He will be greatly missed. Signed, Epstein’s Mother
http://chicagoscooterclub.com Chicago_SC

Please excuse Juan from class he is dead.

Signed
Epstein’s Mother

RIP
Donald Petersen

“Give it to me later, Rosalie.”

Man, you just don’t hear teacher/student rapport like that anymore.