Actor Tony Ganios, who is best known for playing the character Meat in the “Porky’s” films, died on Sunday at age 64.
His fiancée, Amanda Serrano-Ganios, confirmed the news on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing “The last words we said to each other were “I love you.” Love is an understatement. You are everything to me. My heart, my soul and my best friend. I love you.”
Ganios had fallen ill last week, according to reports from Deadline and Entertainment Weekly, and was hospitalized for a spinal cord infection. He died of heart failure following surgery at a hospital in New York.
“It’s just unreal to me right now. It was so fast,” Serrano-Ganios also said on X. “He hadn’t felt well and hid it from me for days. When he finally told me, and was taken to the hospital, his spinal cord was severely infected. They did surgery, next morning, his heart stopped. I’m crushed.”
“I’m just completely empty inside now. He was my best friend, my soul mate. I just love him so much,” she said to People.
Ganios made his film debut in the 1979 film, “The Wanderers,” directed by Philip Kaufman. That film also starred Robert Wahl. The pair later worked together on the 1987-90 crime series “Wiseguy.”
His best-known role, however, was as Anthony “Meat” Tuperello in the 1981 sex comedy “Porky’s.” He also starred in the sequels, “Porky’s II: The Next Day” and “Porky’s Revenge.”
Ganios also acted in the 1981 John Belushi comedy “Continental Divide,” and played a villain who meets an untimely end thanks to an icicle in “Die Hard 2.”
His other credits include “The Taking of Beverly Hills,” “Rising Sun,” and episodes of “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” and “The Equalizer.”