The actor died from an apparent heart attack after suffering chest pains at his New Jersey home.
In this 1978 file photo, Robert Hegyes portrays Juan Epstein from the comedy series "Welcome Back Kotter." The actor best known for playing the Jewish Puerto Rican student on the 1970s TV show has died. He was 60. (AP Photo, file) Robert Hegyes, the New Jersey-born actor who played "Sweathog" Juan Epstein on the 1970s TV show "Welcome Back Kotter," died from an apparent heart attack after suffering chest pains at his Metuchen, N.J., home this morning, the Newark Star-Ledger reported. He was 60.
Hegyes, who also co-starred on "Cagney and Lacey" and taught occasional master classes at his alma mater, Rowan University, was best known for his work on "Kotter," in which he performed alongside a young John Travolta as one of the tough remedial students known at the Sweathogs.
In 2011, the series was honored at the TV Land Awards. Hegyes said the network "gave us new life in syndication; I looked at it as an opportunity to poison a whole new generation,"
USA Today reported at the time.
Hegyes had suffered a heart attack a couple of years ago and was not in good health, his brother Mark Hegyes of Montana told the Star-Ledger. Metuchen police responded to a call for medical assistance from Hegyes' home at 9:02 a.m., and Hegyes, who was experiencing chest pains, was taken to JFK Medical Center in Edison. By the time he arrived at the emergency room at 9:40 a.m., he was in full cardiac arrest and died, hospital spokesman Steven Weiss told the Star-Ledger.
The actor is survived by three siblings, two children, Cassie and Mack, and two step-children, Sophia and Alex, according to Us magazine.