18 Facts About Ron Popeil

Ronald Martin Popeil was an American inventor and marketing personality, and founder of the direct response marketing company Ronco.

When he was 18, Ron Popeil attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he joined Alpha Epsilon Pi before withdrawing after six months.

Ron Popeil continued as a distributor for his father and added additional products from other manufacturers.

Ron Popeil received the Ig Nobel Prize in Consumer Engineering in 1993.

Ron Popeil was a past member of the board of directors of Mirage Resorts, where he served for 22 years under Steve Wynn, as well as a past member of the board of directors of MGM Hotels for seven years under Kirk Kerkorian.

Ron Popeil became the recipient of the Electronic Retail Association's Lifetime Achievement award in 2001 and he is listed in the Direct Response Hall of Fame.

Ron Popeil was previously a member of the advisory board for University of California, Los Angeles' Business, Management, and Legal Programs.

In 1956, Ron Popeil married Marilyn Greene, with whom he had two daughters; they divorced in 1963.

Ron Popeil married Lisa Boehne some time after this and had one daughter with her.

Ron Popeil died on July 28,2021, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at age 86.

Ron Popeil had been sent there a day earlier for a medical emergency.

Ron Popeil is noted for marketing and in some cases inventing a wide variety of products.

Parodies of Ron Popeil's infomercials were done on the comedy show Saturday Night Live by Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy and the "Veg-O-Matic" may have provided comedian Gallagher inspiration for the "Sledge-O-Matic" routine since the 1980s.

Ron Popeil was voted by Self magazine readers as one of the 25 people who have changed the way we eat, drink and think about food.

Ron Popeil has been referenced in the music of Alice Cooper, the Beastie Boys, and "Weird Al" Yankovic.

Ron Popeil later used this song in some of his infomercials.

In Malcolm Gladwell's book What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, Ron Popeil is interviewed and many of his products, most notably the Veg-O-Matic and Showtime Rotisserie, are discussed.

Malcolm Gladwell's 2000 New Yorker piece "The Pitchman" about Ron Popeil won Gladwell the 2001 National Magazine award.