Ron Popeil, inventor and king of TV pitchmen, dies at 86 - Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ron Popeil, the quintessential TV pitchman and inventor known to generations of viewers for hawking products including the Veg-O-Matic, the Pocket Fisherman, Mr.

Microphone and the Showtime Rotisserie and BBQ, has died, his family said.

Popeil died “suddenly and peacefully” Wednesday at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his family said in a statement.

Building on an invention of his father’s, the Chop-o-Matic, he marketed the slicing-and-chopping machine he called the Veg-O-Matic, sold by the company he founded and named after himself — Ronco.

As his influence grew, he crafted an enthusiastic, guy-next-door presence that suffused the 1970s with commercials for such gadgets as the the Popeil Pocket Fisherman, a self-contained fishing apparatus, and Mr.

“I have enough money today,” he said at the time.

Popeil,” whose lyrics said, “I need a Veg-O-Matic.

I need a pocket fisherman.