Professional wrestling icon “Rowdy” Roddy Piper has died at the age of 61. Roddy, who was born Roderick George Toombs, passed away in his sleep from cardiac arrest at his Hollywood home Thursday night.
Roddy was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2006, but announced this past November that he was cancer-free. A family source confirmed to TMZ Sports that Piper was “cancer free” at the time of his death.
Roddy’s agent, Jay Schachter, issued this brief statement: “I am devastated at this news. Rod was a good friend as well as a client and one of the most generous, sincere and authentic people I have ever known. This is a true loss to us all.”
Roddy is a WWE Hall of Fame inductee and was named by the WWE itself as the organization’s greatest villain. He wrestled in over 7,000 matches during a career that spanned 42 years from 1969 to 2011.
When inducting Roddy Piper into the WWE Hall of Fame, fellow wrestler Ric Flair said, “Roddy is the greatest entertainer in wrestling History, bar none.”
