Robert Hegyes

Robert Hegyes (pronounced Hedges; May 7, 1951 – January 26, 2012) was an American actor best known for his portrayal of high school student Juan Epstein on the 1970s American sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter and as detective Manny Esposito on the 1980s American crime drama Cagney & Lacey.

Early life

Hegyes was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, to a Hungarian-American father, Stephen, and an Italian-American mother, Marie Dominica Cocozza. Hegyes was the oldest and had three siblings (Mark, Stephanie, and Elizabeth).

He grew up in Metuchen, New Jersey, and began acting in high school in the mid-1960s under the guidance of Metuchen High School theater teacher, Barton Shepard. Upon graduation from Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) where he completed his student teaching requirement at Haddon Township High School, with a B.A. in Speech/Theater and Secondary Education, Hegyes ventured to New York City to pursue a career in acting and soon became a member of a Greenwich Village children's theater group called, "Theater in a Trunk," performing educational theater at U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt's birthplace, on East 20th Street. Hegyes continued performing in the Village in educational children's theater, this time as a puppeteer with an arm and rod puppet company, playing Mr. Toad in The Wind in the Willows. Robert managed to work a third performing job in Washington Square Park and at the Provincetown Playhouse as a member of the political improvisational guerrilla troupe, "Jack LaRumpa's Flying Drum & Kazoo Band."