Welcome Back Kotter's Ron Palillo Dies

Actor Ron Palillo, best-known as loudmouthed Horshack on the '70s hit sitcom Welcome Back Kotter, has died unexpectedly at age 63, reports Palm Beach Post.

He is survived by his partner of 41 years, Joseph Gramm, a retired actor. Palillo died at his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida this morning and it's unknown whether he'd been ill. A cause of death has not yet been determined.

Palillo starred as Sweathog Arnold Horshack on the highly-rated comedy, which also helped launch the career of John Travolta, from 1975-79. The series starred comic Gabe Kaplan as a teacher who returns to his own Brooklyn high school to educate a group of unruly students.

He had been teaching acting classes at G-Star School of the Arts, a charter school in West Palm Beach, for about three years. "He was the greatest guy. He could have come in with an ego and he didn't," Greg Hauptner, founder and CEO of G-Star Academy, tells the Post. "The kids are going to miss him."