This was the GMA ‘Welcome Back, Kotter’ reunion which took place last year. Hegyes who was know for his role as Juan Epstein on “Welcome Back Kotter.” Hegyes was in cardiac arrest when paramedics were enroute to John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey where he later died, according to Reuters.
On the show “Welcome Back Kotter,” Hegyes played “Juan Luis Pedro Felipo de Huevos Epstein” who was a Jewish Puerto Rican student. Epstein was part of a remedial class of high school kids known as the “Sweathogs.”
“Hey, Mr. Kotter, I got a note!” was Epstein’s catchphrase which would follow by the reading the note aloud suggesting that he had made the excuses himself. One of the things that made the program successful was the friendships that crossed ethnic boundaries. The cast which also included Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs [Freddie 'Boom-Boom' Washington], Gabe Kaplin [Gabe Kotter], Ron Palillo [Arnold Horshack] (who was unable to attend), Marcia Strassman [Julie Kotter], and John Travolta [Barbarino], had reunited on the TV Land Awards and on “Good Morning America” in 2011.
“My reality far exceeded my dreams when this thing came along, it just did,” Hegyes said then.
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