Robert Hegyes

Credit: Everett

Robert Hegyes, Welcome Back, Kotter Star, Dies

Originally posted 01/26/2012 06:35PM

Robert Hegyes, best known as John Travolta's fellow "Sweathog" Juan Epstein on the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, has died. He was 60

Hegyes died from an apparent heart attack after having chest pains, The Star-Ledger reports. His brother tells the New Jersey paper the actor had suffered a heart attack in the last couple of years and was not well.

Hegyes, who was born in New Jersey, played a wise-cracking Jewish Puerto Rican student with an infectious wide grin. He co-starred in the classic comedy with a young Travolta, who played Vinnie Barbarino.