Sadly John Altamura of the Toxic Avenger franchise has passed away.
The news comes from Lorraine Altamura, John’s brother, who explained that John died from a heart attack. No other details are available at this time.
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Altamura played the Toxic Avenger in Troma’s The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie, but also starred in films like The Opponent, The Marilyn Diaries, and New York Nights.
The Toxic Avenger series caught on as a cult classic over the years and features the adventures of Melvin Ferd. Ferd is a bit of a weakling who works as a janitor at a health club and is harassed often by the staff. After one of these pranks goes wrong, Ferd is turned into a super strong but deformed creature and ends up taking on the mayor of Tromaville, who is actually running a citywide crime ring.
The film would spawn two sequels, which were actually filmed at the same time but had to be separated into two films because of the sheer amount of footage. John Altamura would play the role of Melvin Ferd/The Toxic Avenger in both projects.
