Alan Sacks passed away “peacefully” at the age of 81 on Tuesday morning after a battle with cancer.
Welcome Back co-creator Kotter, known for producing several Disney Channel projects, died of complications from lymphoma in his hometown of New York City.
He was first diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma 22 years ago and spent several years in remission before the cancer recurred.
He was being treated, but in recent weeks his mantle cell lymphoma took an “aggressive” turn, his wife, talent agent Annette van Duren, said in a statement, according to Deadline.
Alan Sacks passed away “peacefully” at the age of 81 on Tuesday morning after a battle with cancer. Welcome Back co-creator Kotter, known for producing several Disney Channel projects, died of complications from lymphoma in his hometown of New York; Pictured in 2015 in Los Angeles.
“They gave him the gift of dancing at our daughter’s wedding in June and accompanying her to the altar,” he said. “After that, the chemotherapy was no longer effective.”
He said Sacks began receiving palliative care last week before his death.
“He died peacefully listening to Tibetan music during his last days and nights at the age of 81,” he shared in his statement.
The film and television producer was known for co-creating the popular 1970s show Welcome Back, Kotter and working on several projects set in the Los Angeles punk scene of the 1980s.
He was born in Brooklyn and began his career in the research department at ABC Television before moving to Los Angeles.
He continued to work at ABC as a program executive and helped develop and co-create Welcome Back, Kotter along with Gabe Kaplan and Peter Meyerson.
He based the hit comedy on the lives of his Brooklyn high school friends and the stand-up routine of Kaplan, who played Mr. Kotter.
It was based on Kaplan’s Holes and Mello-Rolls, which chronicles his formative days as a teenager at New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn.
The film and television producer was known for co-creating the popular 1970s show Welcome Back, Kotter and working on several projects set in the Los Angeles punk scene of the 1980s; Pictured in February 2009 with Jim Gallagher in Hollywood.
He was born in Brooklyn and began his career in the research department at ABC Television before moving to Los Angeles. He continued to work at ABC as a program executive and helped develop and co-create Welcome Back, Kotter along with Gabe Kaplan and Peter Meyerson; Pictured left to right: Christopher Morgan, Alan Sacks, Kevin Hooks on August 26, 2000 in Pasadena.
He based the hit comedy on the lives of his Brooklyn high school friends and the stand-up routine of Kaplan, who played Mr. Kotter; Pictured left to right: Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs, John Travolta, Ron Palillo, Robert Hegyes, Gabe Kaplan in a 1975 television still.
; Pictured left to right: Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs, John Travolta, Robert Hegyes, Ron Palillo, Gabe Kaplan in a 1976 television still.
The comedy ran for four seasons from September 1975 until its last in June 1979.
He also worked on Chico and the Man. In 1991, he created and produced Riders in the Sky, a Saturday morning children’s show that replaced the Pee-Wee Herman Show on CBS.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Sacks produced television films, including Women at West Point, Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story, and A Cry for Love.
In the ’80s he worked on a project about The Runaways, but when it never got off the ground, Sacks took the footage and worked it into a new plot.
He directed the resulting film, Du-Beat-eo, and released it in 1984 about a director working on a tight deadline to finish a film about Runaways member Joan Jett.
The film was set against the backdrop of the Los Angeles hardcore punk scene and also featured Ray Sharkey and Derf Scratch of the punk band Fear.
Sacks also wrote and produced the 1986 skate film Thrashin’.
The film starred Josh Brolin, Robert Rusler and Pamela Gidley and included the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ first musical performance and appearance on film.