“Welcome Back Kotter” star ROBERT HEGYES dies of a heart attack

Robert Hagyes, the actor who played Epstein on the 1970s TV show “Welcome Back Kotter”, died on Thursday in a New Jersey hospital.

Reports say the 60-year-old actor was at his home in New Jersey when he suffered a heart attack.  He was rushed to JFK Medical Center in Edison, where he later died.

Last month, Hegyues and his fellow cast-members, including John Travolta, reunited for TV Land’s 35^th Anniversary Award.

Hagyes played a Puerto Rican-Jew who was part of a misfit high school group known as the Sweathogs.