Pitchman Billy Mays found dead day before scheduled hip surgery

Billy Mays was AN OLD SCHOOL pitchman, and one of the MOST SUCCESSFUL, his ads appeared some 400 times a week.

But his life ended suddenly this morning.

50-year old Mays was found dead by his wife at their lavish home in Tampa, Florida.

Married, and father of two, he was scheduled for hip surgery tomorrow.

But, yesterday Mays was on board a US AIR flight that made a hard landing in Tampa.

He described what happened on twitter…

saying:

JUST HAD A CLOSE CALL LANDING IN TAMPA. THE TIRES BLEW OUT UPON LANDING. STUCK IN THE PLANE ON THE RUNWAY. YOU CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON USAIR.

According to WTVT IN TAMPA, Mays said, quote “all of a sudden as we hit, ya know, it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping. it hit me on the head, but i got a hard head.

Authorities say its too early to draw any connection between his death and the incident on the plane.

Billy Mays success began more than 10 years ago when he first hawked Orange Glow on the Home Shopping network,

6000 units sold in 11 minutes.

He quickly realized he had the pitch to make big money.

CNBC’s DARREN ROVELL PROFILED MAYS THIS PAST SPRING.

How much have your products grossed? Billions.

Billy Mays: Billions. Yea. Billions. I know how to sell.

HE WAS GOOD FOR ALMOST ANY INDUSTRY, FOR BAKING SODA, FOR HEALTH INSURANCE, BILLY MAYS COULD SELL ANYTHING.

There were also appearances on Leno and Conan…as

Mays was busy promoting his new reality tv show, called Pitchmen.

A native of Pittsburgh, Mays played high school football.

While he never graduated from college…he found the secret to his success was in his voice and his pitch.

Rehema Ellis, NBC NEWS, New York