I'm not sure what to write about Ron Palillo, who died in his sleep from a heart attack this morning. The obits say he was 63 but it wouldn't surprise me if he was actually a few years older than that. When I worked with him on Welcome Back, Kotter in 1976-1977, there were meetings of publicity-type folks about how to conceal the true ages of the four men who were playing high school kids on the series. John Travolta was 22 playing 17. But I kept hearing all this chatter and different birthdates thrown out for Ron and was led to believe he was a lot older than 27 playing 17.
Ron played Arnold Horshack, the goofiest of Mr. Kotter's "Sweathogs" and viewers loved him. The writers on the show did not as Ron was often abrasive and he had (we thought) a tendency to look at every line and ask the question, "How can I take the maximum amount of time and get the maximum amount of attention for saying this?" The shows always ran long so we were always looking for cuts and Ron did not help. If we sliced a long speech of his in half, he would somehow manage to make the remaining half take even longer than the whole. In his defense, you have to remember this: The audiences — at least the ones who came to our tapings — laughed whenever he opened his mouth. They practically gave him a standing o' when he opened it to shout, "Oooh! Oooh!"
He was certainly a major factor in that show's popularity but I did not get along well with the guy…then. Later though, our paths crossed when I was writing for Hanna-Barbera and he was in to do occasional voice work. We had one nice conversation when he apologized for things he'd said and done. I told him I understood but I'm not altogether certain I really did. And then our paths never crossed again.
He did not get a lot of work as an actor, post-Kotter. I can't explain why that was since he was really good in front of a camera. I heard he was on a soap opera for a time…that he had some plastic surgery…that he was doing some teaching and some painting…and this morning, that he'd left us. I did not like the guy I worked with on Welcome Back, Kotter but I have nothing but warm thoughts about the Ron Palillo in the Hanna-Barbera waiting room. I'd like to think that was the real person.