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Ron Palillo
Ron Palillo in 1975
Born	Ronald Gabriel Paolillo (1949-04-02)April 2, 1949 New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Died	August 14, 2012(2012-08-14) (aged 63) Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, U.S.
Resting place	St. Lawrence Cemetery
Other names	Ronald G. Paolillo (as illustrator)
Alma mater	University of Connecticut
Occupations	Actor illustrator playwright
Years active	1975–2012
Partner	Joseph Gramm (1971–2012; Palillo's death)

Ronald Gabriel Palillo (April 2, 1949 – August 14, 2012) was an American actor and teacher. He was best known for his role as the endearingly dim-witted character Arnold Horshack on the ABC sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–1979).

Early life and education

Ronald Gabriel Paolillo was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to Italian-Americans Gabriel and Carmel Paolillo, and raised in nearby Cheshire. His father died of lung cancer when he was 10 years old. He graduated from Cheshire High School and the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where he would teach in the 1990s. He attended Fairfield University while pursuing a postgraduate degree. He adopted the last name Palillo for his acting career.

Career

In 1975, Palillo was cast as Arnold Horshack, one of the misfit "sweathogs" in the high school sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, whose antics made him one of the standout characters of the series. In the last season of the series, a backdoor pilot episode for a spin-off series featuring Horshack was produced, but the series was not developed.

Following Kotter, Palillo appeared in leading and supporting roles in various television series and films. He voiced characters on such animated series as Laverne & Shirley in the Army, Darkwing Duck, and Rubik, the Amazing Cube, in which he played the lead character. In 1996, Palillo played himself in several episodes of the television sitcom Ellen, playing the love interest of Ellen's friend Audrey. Palillo also spent a year on the daytime show One Life to Live and also acted in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986), and the lead in The Curse of Micah Rood.

He returned to New York in 1991, and played such stage roles as Mozart in Amadeus and regionally as George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Arthur in Camelot and Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls. He appeared on Broadway in 2008 in Broadway Backwards 4, a charity event benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. Among his other New York City credits were a one-person show in 2000 where he portrayed Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann in The Diary of Adolf Eichmann off-Broadway. Palillo, in a newspaper interview in 1997, said he lamented his role as Horshack as he was permanently typecast, which he believed had damaged his career. The following year Palillo starred in The Fourposter at the Wayside Theatre in Middletown, Virginia.

As a director, Palillo directed successful productions of the musical Three Guys Naked From The Waist Down in Los Angeles, A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline, and a new edition of Phantom of the Opera at the Cuillo Center for the Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida. In 2007, he introduced a clothing line specializing in limited-edition T-shirts produced by Rotter and Friends. Palillo was also an artist, providing artwork for two children's books: The Red Wings of Christmas and A Gift for the Contessa.

In 2006, his first full-length play, The Lost Boy, the true story of Peter Pan author J. M. Barrie, premiered at the Helen Hayes Theatre in Nyack, New York, and later played at the Queens Theatre in the Park in Queens, New York, and at El Dorado Springs High School in El Dorado Springs, Missouri.

He taught freshman drama at G-Star School of the Arts for Motion Pictures and Broadcasting in Palm Springs, Florida.

Personal life and death

Palillo and his partner of 41 years, Joseph Gramm, lived in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. On August 14, 2012, Palillo suffered a heart attack at his home and was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. He died seven months after co-star Robert Hegyes, who also died from a heart attack.

Palillo's funeral service was held in Palm Beach Gardens on August 22, 2012. He is buried at St. Lawrence Cemetery in West Haven, Connecticut. A memorial tribute, directed by Lawrence Leritz and hosted by Tyne Daly, was held to honor and celebrate Palillo's life and career at New York City's Triad Theatre on October 3, 2012.

Filmography

References

1. Diaz, Johnny (August 14, 2012). "Ron Palillo, of 'Welcome Back, Kotter' fame, 63". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Fort Lauderdale. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013.
2. Kinser, Jeremy (August 14, 2012). "Welcome Back Kotter's Ron Palillo Dies". The Advocate.
3. "Ron Palillo". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2012. Archived from the original on August 18, 2012 – via Baseline & All Movie Guide.
4. ^ Vitello, Paul (August 14, 2012). "Ron Palillo Dies at 63; Played Horshack on TV". The New York Times.
5. "So Soon, Another Sweathog Is Gone". The New York Times. August 14, 2012.
6. Hinckley, David (August 14, 2012). "Ron Palillo dead at 63: Actor best known to TV audiences as Horshack on 'Welcome Back, Kotter'". Daily News. New York.
7. Erstein, Hap (May 7, 1996). "Ron Palillo's Welcome Back". The Palm Beach Post.
8. "Welcome back, Kotter actor Ron Palillo dead at 63". Associated Press. August 14, 2012.
9. "Cheshire's 'Kotter' connection now a teacher". Republican-American. November 26, 2010. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
10. "7 potential spinoffs that never saw the light of day". Me-TV Network. September 2, 2016. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
11. "Ooh-ooh-ooh! "Horshack" Talks Up the Kotter DVD". TV Guide. June 12, 2007. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
12. "The Curse of Micah Rood (Short 2008)". IMDb.
13. Rizzo, Frank. "Connecticut's Ron Palillo, Horshack in "Kotter", Dead at 63". Hartford Courant. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
14. "Ron Palillo hurt by Arnold Horshack role in Kotter series". Big News Network. United Press International. Archived from the original on November 9, 2013. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
15. Horan Jr., John (May 22, 1998). "Palillo, Moran lack required chemistry in 'The Fourposter'". The Northern Virginia Daily. pp. D-1.
16. Laster, James H. "Owens: Production Chronology". allaboutwayside.com. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
17. "Ron Palillo". ronpalillo.com.
18. ^ "Ron Palillo Tribute to be Held at the Triad, 10/3". BroadwayWorld. September 3, 2012.
19. Simonson, Robert. "Ron Palillo, Horshack of "Welcome Back, Kotter", Dies at 63". Playbill. Archived from the original on October 6, 2012. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
20. "'Welcome Back, Kotter' actor teaches drama in Fla". USA Today. Associated Press. October 19, 2009.
21. Freeman, Marc (September 5, 2009). "Former Sweathog, actor Ron Palillo, now a teacher in Palm Beach County". South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
22. Streeter, Leslie Gray (August 14, 2012). "Obituary: Ron Palillo, 63, 'Kotter' star, G-star teacher". The Palm Beach Post. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
23. ^ Silverman, Stephen (August 14, 2012). "Welcome Back, Kotter Actor Ron Palillo Dies". People. Archived from the original on August 16, 2012. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
24. Moore, Frazier (August 14, 2012). "Ron Palillo, actor who played nerdy teen Arnold Horshack on 'Welcome Back, Kotter' dies at 63". The Washington Post. Associated Press. Archived from the original on April 28, 2018.
25. "Ron Palillo, TV's Horshack, dies at 63". Variety. August 14, 2012.
26. Streeter, Leslie Gray (August 20, 2012). "Service for actor, teacher Ron Palillo". The Palm Beach Post. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
27. Wilson, Scott (August 19, 2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons (3d ed.). McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-2599-7.

External links

• Ron Palillo at IMDb
• Ron Palillo at Find a Grave
• Corporate Speakers site for Ron Palillo

• 1949 births
• 2012 deaths
• 20th-century American male actors
• 20th-century American artists
• 21st-century American artists
• 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
• American male film actors
• American writers of Italian descent
• American male stage actors
• American male television actors
• American male voice actors
• Artists from Connecticut
• American children's book illustrators
• American gay actors
• American gay writers
• People from Cheshire, Connecticut
• University of Connecticut alumni
• Fairfield University alumni
• Writers from Connecticut
• American LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights
• LGBTQ people from Connecticut
• LGBTQ people from Florida
• 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
• American male dramatists and playwrights
• People from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
• 20th-century American male writers
• 21st-century American male writers
• Male actors from New Haven, Connecticut
• Cheshire High School alumni
• 20th-century American LGBTQ people
• 21st-century American LGBTQ people