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Quote:

Billy Mays, the burly, boisterous pitchman known for selling products such as OxiClean and Orange Glo, has died at the age of 50.

Tampa police report Mays’ wife found him unresponsive Sunday morning. A fire rescue crew arrived but pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m., reports The Associated Press.

While it is unclear how he died, the pop culture icon was hit on the head during a rough landing while on an airplane, Mays’ wife told investigators, and didn’t feel well when before he went to bed that night.

Mays was among the passengers on a flight that landed roughly Saturday afternoon at Tampa International Airport, U.S. Airways confirmed. The landing left debris on the runway after reportedly blowing its front tires.

A Tampa Bay television station interviewed Mays after the incident.

“All of a sudden as we hit you know it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping,” Mays told MyFox. “It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head.”

The coroner’s office expect to have an autopsy done by this afternoon.

“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. “Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times.”

denette@tvguide.ca