Advertisement

arts entertainmentPop Culture

Wrestler 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper dead at age 61

TMZ reports

that popular wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, born Roderick George Toombs, has died of cardiac arrest. He was 61.

Variety

Advertisement

has also confirmed the news with his agent.

News Roundups

Catch up on the day's news you need to know.

Or with:

His son, Colt Tombs, Tweeted that his father "was a great man and my best friend and I will miss him forever and will alway try to be the man he raised me to be."

Advertisement

Early in Piper's career, Fritz Von Erich brought him to Texas and had him work for Big Time Rasslin in the early 1970's.

"Whenever we wrestled in Dallas, Fritz Von Erich would have me take out a fire marshal's daughter so he could pack more people into the arena than the fire laws would allow," Piper said in his autobiography. These were the types of things I had to do when I was a young professional wrestler. Ain't life great?!"

Fellow wrestlers and personalities lamented the news on social media Friday afternoon.

Advertisement

As of this writing, Piper's official website appears to be down.