Actor Taylor Negron died to day at age 57 after a long battle with cancer according to an online video posted by Negron’s cousin, Three Dog Night’s Chuck Negron.
“I want to inform you that my cousin Taylor Negron just passed away. His mother, his brother Alex and my brother Rene and his wife Julie were all there with him. May he rest in peace.
Every time I saw him, I remembered his cameo as Mr. Pizza Guy in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (below), but he had much bigger parts of course in comedies such as Rodney Dangerfield’s Easy Money (1983) and Young Doctors in Love (1982). And he wasn’t limited to comedy either. Who can forget the bad guy Milo opposite Bruce Willis in The Last Boy Scout (1991)? He also appeared in Savage Steve Holland’s Better Off Dead… (1985), One Crazy Summer (1986), River’s Edge (1986), and Punchline (1988).
From his screen debut in 1975 until as recently as 2010, Negron also cropped up in a huge variety of television shows, from The Dating Game and Hollywood Squares (2001), to The Hughley’s (1998-2000), Nash Bridges (1998), ER (1997), The Practice (1997), Touched by an Angel (1996), Party of Five (1996), Clueless (1996), Hope & Gloria (1995), Grace Under Fire (1994), Seinfeld (1993), The Ben Stiller Show (1992), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), Dream On (1990), Falcon Crest (1988, 1990), Faerie Tale Theater (1985) and Hill Street Blues (1985).
One of the founders of LA’s alternative comedy troop Un-Cabaret, Negron was also a talented painter who had an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art where he was a board member.