TV pitchman Billy Mays, 50, became a pop-culture icon

TAMPA, Fla. — Billy Mays, the burly, bearded television pitchman whose boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean made him a pop-culture icon, has died. He was 50.

Tampa police said Mr. Mays' wife found him unresponsive Sunday morning. A fire rescue crew pronounced him dead. It was not immediately clear how he died. He said he was hit on the head when an airplane he was on made a rough landing Saturday, and his wife, Deborah Mays, told investigators he didn't feel well before he went to bed about 10 o'clock that night.

Investigators do not suspect foul play, said Tampa police Lt. Brian Dugan, who wouldn't answer questions about how Mr. Mays' body was found. The coroner's office expects to have an autopsy done today.

"Although Billy lived a public life, we don't anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days," Deborah Mays said in a statement Sunday.

US Airways confirmed Mr. Mays was among the passengers on a flight that made a rough landing on Saturday afternoon at Tampa International Airport, leaving debris on the runway after apparently blowing its front tires.

"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," Mr. Mays told Tampa Bay's Fox television affiliate afterward.

US Airways spokesman Jim Olson said there were no reports of serious injury caused by the landing.

Mr. Mays, born in Pennsylvania, developed his style demonstrating knives, mops and other gadgets on Atlantic City's boardwalk.

After meeting Orange Glo International founder Max Appel at a home show in Pittsburgh in the mid-1990s, Mr. Mays was recruited to demonstrate the environmentally friendly line of cleaning products on the St. Petersburg-based Home Shopping Network.

Commercials and infomercials followed, anchored by the high-energy Mr. Mays showing how it's done while tossing out kitschy phrases like, "Long live your laundry!"

Mr. Mays liked to tell the story of giving bottles of OxiClean to the 300 guests at his wedding, and doing his ad spiel ("powered by the air we breathe!") on the dance floor at the reception. Visitors to his house typically got bottles of cleaner and housekeeping tips.