WWE and “They Live” Star “Rowdy” Roddy Piper Has Died

UPDATE WWE has posted Piper’s Hall of Fame career retrospective to YouTube
Roddy Piper has passed away at the age of 61 after suffering cardiac arrest at his California home.

Roderick George Toomb was best known to wrestling fans as “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, whose trademark kilt and “Scottish Rage” made him a major WWE star in the ’80s and ’90s. (Though a popular hit with fans, he often filled the heel role back then.)

He was also the star of the ongoing “Piper’s Pit” feature, which featured numerous iconic exchanges, like this Hulk Hogan/Andre the Giant face-off from 1987.
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Piper was also a participant in the very first Wrestlemania event back in 1985, where he and Paul Orndorff fought against Mr. T and Hulk Hogan.
Movie fans, however, will recall a different side of Roddy Piper: the star of the 1987 John Carpenter sci-fi classic “They Live.” Piper stars as a drifter who discovers a pair of sunglasses that reveal a horrifying secret: our world is secretly overrun by an alien race with skull heads, who keep us deluded and under control while they strip our planet of resources.

If you haven’t seen it, it’s just a great movie, plus it features one of the classic fistfights in cinema history, between Piper and actor Keith David.
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The film also gave rise to the now-famous and frequently quoted line: “I’m here to kick ass and chew bubblegum… and I’m all out of bubblegum.”
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Here are some of our favorite tweets and remembrances of Piper from around the Internet.
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