Airwolf Actor Jan-Michael Vincent Dies at 74 After Cardiac Arrest

Actor Jan-Michael Vincent has died at age 74 after suffering cardiac arrest, according to a death certificate obtained by TMZ.

Vincent, best known for his role in the 1980’s TV series Airwolf, reportedly died on Feb. 10 in a North Carolina hospital following a cardiac arrest. No autopsy was performed and the actor was later cremated.

The late actor had been dealing with health issues in recent years, particularly in 2012, when he said his right leg had been amputated following an infection in his leg due to complications from peripheral artery disease, according to a 2014 interview with the National Inquirer .

“I’m an alcoholic. I’m me. I got my personality. I don’t behave like an alcoholic,” he told the National Enquirer.

The Airwolf star struggled with addiction throughout his life, beginning in the 1970s, when he was arrested numerous times for cocaine possession, according to the Daily Mail. He also received a felony assault charge in 1986 but was acquitted.

Following his time on Airwolf, in which he starred as Stringfellow Hawke, he was involved in several severe automobile accidents, resulting in three broken vertebrae in his neck, as well as permanent damage to his vocal cords.

In 2000, he was sentenced to 60 days in Orange County Jail for violating his probation by appearing drunk in public three times.

Vincent was married three times: the first to Bonnie Poorman in 1968, which resulted in a daughter, Amber, born in 1972. The couple divorced in 1977, and he remarried in 1986 to Joanne Robinson, until she filed a restraining order in 1998 after she alleged he had been abusing her since the year of their marriage. He married Patricia Christ in 2000.

In addition to Airwolf, Vincent appeared in the 1983 miniseries The Winds of War and films such as The Mechanic and Big Wednesday. His final film role was in the 2003 independent film White Boy.