Famous Infomercial Pitchmen: Billy Mays, Ron Popeil, Anthony Sullivan & More

The famous infomercial pitchmen are the handful of salespeople whose faces became the product: Ron Popeil of Ronco, Billy Mays of OxiClean, Anthony “Sully” Sullivan of the Swivel Sweeper, and Vince Offer of ShamWow lead almost every list, followed by celebrity pitchwomen, fitness stars, and self-help hosts. Below are their profiles, with dates and figures tied to obituaries, court records, and named reporting rather than fan lore.

Who Are the Most Famous Infomercial Pitchmen?

An infomercial pitchman is an on-camera salesperson who demonstrates a product and asks the viewer to call or order right now. The format grew after the FCC dropped its limits on commercial length in 1984, which made program-length ads legal on broadcast TV. If you want the background on the format, start with what an infomercial is. The people below are the ones viewers still recognize decades later.

Ron Popeil: The Inventor Who Pitched His Own Gadgets

Ron Popeil was the rare pitchman who also designed what he sold, an inventor and entrepreneur first and an on-air salesman second. Born May 3, 1935, in Manhattan, he went to work at 17 for his father’s company, Popeil Brothers, in Chicago, and formed his own company, Ronco, in 1964. The Chop-O-Matic sold for $3.98 and moved more than two million units, and the Veg-O-Matic and Pocket Fisherman followed under the Ronco name.

His later hit, the Showtime Rotisserie (launched in 1998), came with the line he is credited with coining, “Set it and forget it!” He also popularized “But wait, there’s more!” on television, though that line is also credited to the Ginsu knife team; our page on iconic infomercial catchphrases sorts out who said what. Popeil sold Ronco in August 2005 for a reported $55 million, kept inventing anyway, and even collected a tongue-in-cheek Ig Nobel Prize in Consumer Engineering in 1993. He died July 28, 2021, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, at 86, the Associated Press reported.

Billy Mays: From the Atlantic City Boardwalk to OxiClean

Billy Mays was the high-energy, booming voice of 2000s cable TV, hawking cleaners and glues at full volume, and his opener “Hi, Billy Mays here!” is still one of the most quoted pitch intros in the business. William Darrell Mays Jr. was born July 20, 1958, in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, and grew up outside Pittsburgh. Fortune reported he was a walk-on linebacker at West Virginia University before working in his father’s waste-hauling business.

He moved to Atlantic City in 1983 and sold the WashMatik, a portable washing gadget, on the boardwalk. For roughly 12 years he worked the home show circuit, auto shows, and state fairs, learning to stop a crowd with a live demonstration. The break came at a home show in Pittsburgh in 1993, where he befriended rival salesman Max Appel, founder of Orange Glo International. Appel’s company hired him to sell its cleaning products, including Orange Glo and Kaboom, on the Home Shopping Network, and in October 2000 he shot an OxiClean infomercial that made him the face of the cleaner.

Mays went on to pitch Mighty Putty, Mighty Mendit, Hercules Hook, Awesome Auger, and dozens of other products, many through his own marketing company, Mays Promotions. On April 15, 2009, the Discovery Channel premiered PitchMen, a series that followed Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan as they picked new inventions to sell.

What Happened to Billy Mays?

Mays died June 28, 2009, at his home in Tampa, Florida, at age 50. Early reports described a likely heart attack, and the Hillsborough County medical examiner’s initial autopsy findings pointed to hypertensive heart disease. In August 2009 the office named heart disease as the primary cause and listed cocaine use as a contributing factor, the AP reported; his family called that finding speculative, and a later review the family commissioned disputed it. PitchMen continued with Sullivan, and Discovery aired a second season in August 2010.

Anthony Sullivan: The Pitchman Who Also Produced

Anthony “Sully” Sullivan is the English-born pitchman who built a career both on camera and behind it. According to a 2009 Fortune profile, he learned to pitch in the street markets of London, came to the U.S. in the early 1990s (1991, by Fortune’s account), and was spotted by a Home Shopping Network scout while selling SmartMops at a home show in Tampa. HSN later recruited him as a network show host, and that’s where he reconnected with pitchman Billy Mays, a rival from the home show circuit.

Their OxiClean ads paired Mays as frontman with Sullivan as producer through his company, Sullivan Productions. Fortune put Sullivan’s Swivel Sweeper ad results at 14 million units sold in more than 60 countries. The series’ official description billed Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan as “two of the most famous and successful pitchmen in history,” a fair summary of how the duo looked to the industry in 2009.

Vince Offer: ShamWow, Slap Chop, and the Viral Remix

Vince Offer (born Offer Vince Shlomi in Beersheba, Israel, in 1964) brought stand-up comic timing to a format built on earnest demos. He began marketing the ShamWow towel in 2006, and the ad most people remember was filmed in the summer of 2007. The Slap Chop spot, filmed in August 2008 and aired that December, packed in the double entendres, and DJ Steve Porter’s “Slap Chop Rap” remix in April 2009 spread it far beyond late-night TV.

Offer also directed films, including The Underground Comedy Movie (released 1999) and InAPPropriate Comedy (2013). In February 2009 he and a woman were both arrested after an altercation at a Miami Beach hotel; prosecutors declined to file charges against either of them.

Celebrity and Fitness Pitch Personalities

Celebrities brought instant recognition, which meant less airtime spent establishing who was talking. Fitness products used that shortcut again and again.

Suzanne Somers and the ThighMaster

The “Three’s Company” star became spokesperson and part-owner of the ThighMaster, whose commercials began in April 1991. Marketer Peter Bieler has said about 6 million units sold within 18 months, and Somers later estimated 10 to 15 million in total, Mental Floss reported. She died in October 2023.

George Foreman, Chuck Norris, and Christie Brinkley

The boxing champion received a sample of a sloped countertop grill in 1994, and in 1999 the manufacturer paid a reported $137.5 million for the right to use his name; the full story is on our George Foreman Grill page. Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley fronted the Total Gym infomercial that came out of a 1996 deal with American Telecast Products.

Tony Little, Tony Horton, and Susan Powter

Tony Little, who calls himself “America’s Personal Trainer,” turned a 1983 car accident (it happened while he trained for a bodybuilding championship) into the backstory behind his energetic, ponytailed style. His best-known product, the Gazelle glider, was co-created with Harper Williams and Fitness Quest and sold through HSN and QVC. Tony Horton made an appearance in a ThighMaster infomercial before fronting Tony Horton’s P90X, which first aired in 2004 by Beachbody’s account. Susan Powter, born in Sydney, Australia, launched her “Stop the Insanity!” infomercial in December 1992 with her platinum, close-cropped hair.

Self-Help, Hair, and Money Pitches

Not every famous pitch sold a gadget. Some of the biggest names sold an idea, a program, or a promise, and that category drew pointed regulatory attention.

Tony Robbins. His Personal Power cassette program was produced by Guthy-Renker in 1988, and by 1991 an estimated 100 million Americans had seen his infomercials, according to company histories of Guthy-Renker. It proved that intangible products could work in direct-response TV if the host held the screen.

Sy Sperling. The founder of Hair Club for Men started the company in 1976 and appeared in its first national commercial in 1982, closing with the line that he was not only the president but also a client. CBS reported his on-camera spot drew about 2,000 calls while a version without him barely registered. He died February 19, 2020, at 78.

Matthew Lesko. The “question mark guy” wore suits covered in question marks to sell books on getting free money from the federal government. A 2004 New York State Consumer Protection Board report said most of the grants listed were public assistance programs many readers would not qualify for.

Kevin Trudeau. Trudeau is the clearest case of a pitch personality colliding with regulators. In 2004 he settled FTC charges over ads for Coral Calcium Supreme and Biotape, agreeing to a ban on infomercials for any product except books and other publications plus a $2 million judgment, without admitting a violation (FTC press release). A federal jury later found he defied a 2004 court order with infomercials for his weight-loss book, and in March 2014 a judge in Chicago sentenced him to 10 years in prison for criminal contempt (U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Illinois).

Hosts Who Made the Format Feel Like a Show

Mike Levey. The host of Amazing Discoveries, which ran from 1989 to 1997, was known as the “Sweater Man” for his trademark knitwear and his calm, conversational style. He died of cancer on August 2, 2003, at 55. More shows from his era are in our list of 90s infomercials.

Cathy Mitchell. She did product demonstrations at California fairs, including the California State Fair, before filming her first infomercial in 1989 for the Snakmaster sandwich press. She chose a commission on each unit over a flat fee, and she later built a cookbook line around Dump Cakes and Dump Dinners.

Tim Shaw. In Australia, one of the best-known infomercial faces of the 1990s was Tim Shaw, “The Demtel Man,” who fronted Demtel’s spots from 1992 to 1995 before moving into radio and TV.

How Famous Infomercial Pitchmen Got Paid and Why the Pitch Worked

Top pitchmen were paid like salespeople, not actors. When a marketer wanted to hire one, Fortune reported in 2009, the pitchman usually collected an upfront fee of $20,000 or more to front a new ad, then earned a cut of 3% to 5% of back-end sales. That royalty is why a pitchman cared which products he took on: a flop paid the fee and nothing else.

The structure came from the fairground. Fortune described a three-step carny method: “ballying the tip” to draw a crowd, nodding along with your own questions so the audience nods too, then counting off buyers to turn interest into orders. Mays, Sullivan, and Mitchell all learned it in person at fairs and home shows before a camera ever rolled.

• Problem first. The opening seconds show the mess, the stain, or the dull knife, so the viewer recognizes the problem before hearing the brand.
• Live proof. The demonstration does the persuading. Mighty Putty holding a load or a towel soaking up a spill is evidence the viewer can see.
• Stacked offer. The price lands, then extras pile on, which is the job “But wait, there’s more!” was written to do.
• Urgent close. A phone number, a deadline, and a repeat of the offer, so the ad converts on the first viewing.

We run paid advertising for clients, and that four-part structure still shows up in what works today: an ad that names the consumer’s problem in the first line usually holds attention better than one that leads with the company name. The pitchmen learned that on boardwalks, decades before anyone measured it in a dashboard.

To compare the campaigns these people fronted, browse the best infomercials of all time and the 80s infomercials that set the template, then check whether As Seen On TV products actually work before you order. If you are researching one of the famous infomercial pitchmen in depth, start with the dated sources named in each profile above, because fan wikis repeat a lot of unverified sales numbers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is the most famous infomercial pitchman?

Billy Mays and Ron Popeil are the two names cited most often. Mays was the best-known face of 2000s cable thanks to OxiClean, while Popeil, who founded Ronco in 1964, is often credited with the inventor-pitchman model that later hosts copied.

What was the cause of Billy Mays’s death?

The Hillsborough County medical examiner named heart disease as the primary cause of his June 28, 2009, death and listed cocaine use as a contributing factor. His family disputed the cocaine finding, and a later review they commissioned did not consider it significant.

Who was Billy Mays’s partner on PitchMen?

Anthony “Sully” Sullivan co-starred with Mays on the Discovery Channel’s PitchMen, which premiered in April 2009. Sullivan had produced the stain remover ads Mays fronted, and he carried the show into a second season after Mays died.

Who is the famous Australian infomercial pitchman?

Tim Shaw, known as “The Demtel Man,” fronted Demtel’s Australian infomercials from 1992 to 1995. Susan Powter, of “Stop the Insanity!” fame, was born in Sydney, though her infomercial career was in the U.S.

Did infomercial pitchmen earn royalties?

Many did. Fortune reported in 2009 that top pitchmen took an upfront fee, usually $20,000 or more, plus 3% to 5% of back-end sales. Cathy Mitchell similarly chose a per-unit commission over a flat fee.

Which pitchwoman sold the ThighMaster?

Suzanne Somers fronted the ThighMaster from its April 1991 launch and became a part-owner. Marketer Peter Bieler has said about 6 million units sold in the first 18 months.