By Lee Pfeiffer
Billy Mays, the seemingly omnipresent pitchman seen all over American TV, has died at age 50. The stocky Mays had parlayed his "spiel" of in-your-face promotions for household cleansers and other products into a virtual trademark. Clad in his familiar blue shirt and tan trousers, the stocky, bearded Mays would wake viewers out of their stupors by literally shouting about the quality of his products. In a recent profile on a major TV show, it became clear that Mays had legions of fans who would mob him for autograph and flatter him by reciting his ads verbatim. For others, his bombastic approach caused them to frantically search for the mute button on their remote control. By all accounts, however, Mays was a likable man who relished his unusual status as a celebrity pitchman. Even those who didn't like his TV persona had to confess admiration for the way he built himself into a one-man industry. He had also just premiered his cable TV show
Pitchmen in which he evaluated prospective new products for late night TV marketing. Mays was on a flight that had a rough landing in Tampa yesterday, though it isn't confirmed that incident might have had anything to do with his death.
Mays is the latest celebrity to die in a week that has already seen the passing of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.
For more click here