Robert Hegyes, best known for his role as a Jewish Puerto Rican student named Juan Epstein on the 1970s television show “Welcome Back Kotter” dies at the age of 60. A spokesman at the JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.J., reported that Hegyes arrived at the hospital on Thursday morning in full cardiac arrest and then died.
Hegyes appeared on Broadway before he got the role of “Kotter,” which was a television series about a teacher who returned to inner-city New York to teach a group of impudent students nicknamed the “Sweathogs.” A student by the name of Vinnie Barbarino was played by John Travolta. Hegyes got involved in theater as a teen due to the encouragement of his mother.
