Ron Palillo has found that there is life after "Welcome Back, Kotter."
The actor who played lovable nerd Arnold Horshack - with a wheezing laugh that is still his trademark - recalls a terrifying realization he had about five weeks after the sitcom began on ABC."I thought, . . . `I'm going to be Don Knotts or Jim Nabors for the rest of my life,' " Palillo said. Those actors became typecast as Barney Fife and Gomer Pyle.
After the show left the air "the offers that I did get were for Arnold Horshack all over again," Palillo said. So he returned to his first love - theater.
"All of a sudden, people were starting to say, ` . . . He can act. Who knew?' " Palillo said.
He also launched a second career as an artist, illustrating two children's books. He appears in the soap opera "One Life to Live" and is playing a villain in the musical "Oliver!" at Birmingham's Summerfest '94.