In yet another sad story of a celebrity passing, TV pitchman Billy Mays died unexpectedly on Sunday morning at the age of 50. Mays was famous for shilling OxiClean and Orange Glo and yelling into the camera, but even though he was a consummate salesman, he managed to elevate himself out of infomercials and into reality TV with the program Pitchmen on the Discovery Channel earlier this year.
Mays’ wife found him early Sunday morning in their Florida home, unresponsive. On Saturday, Mays was involved in a rough landing on a flight from Philadelphia after his plane blew a tire. In a statement he gave to MyFox Tampa Bay on Saturday night, Mays said “All of a sudden as we hit you know it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping. It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head,” and he later Twittered “Just had a close call landing in Tampa. The tires blew out upon landing. Stuck in the plane on the runway. You can always count on US Air.” After the flight, he complained that he didn’t feel well but went to bed with no visible signs of injury.
TMZ is reporting now that Mays may not have been wearing a seat belt during the landing, but conclusive autopsy results will not be provided until this afternoon. [Photo: GettyImages]
