“Rowdy” Roddy Piper, one of the most famous pro wrestlers in history, died last night from a heart attack.
The news was first reported by TMZ and echoed shortly thereafter by Variety, which received an email from the 61-year-old’s agent Jay Schacter saying, “Rod passed peacefully in his sleep last night… I am shocked and beyond devastated.”
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After working his way through a variety of pro wrestling circuits, the Canadian joined the WWF in 1984 and quickly became its biggest heel, launching a feud with Hulk Hogan that involved Piper kicking Cyndi Lauper in the head and screaming about how much he hated rock ‘n’ roll. His schtick was based heavily on his Scottish heritage, and he often appeared in a kilt playing bagpipes; his character was also an unabashed racist, which was pretty common in pro wrestling back in those days. Here he is getting into an altercation with Mr. T, whom he had a pretty real beef with before the two eventually reconciled in 2014:
Non-wrestling fans probably know Piper best for his lead role in John Carpenter’s 1988 film They Live, in which he ad-libbed the meme-inspiring line, “I’ve come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… And I’m all out of bubblegum.” RIP: