Alan Sacks Dies: ‘Welcome Back Kotter’ Co-Creator & Disney Channel Producer Was 81

Alan Sacks, known for co-creating Welcome Back, Kotter and producing several Disney Channel projects, has died. He was 81.

The producer’s wife, talent agent Annette van Duren, tells Deadline died Tuesday morning in New York City after his mantle cell lymphoma had become “aggressive” in recent weeks.

“It was treated for him to dance at our daughter’s June wedding and walk her down the aisle,” she said. “After that, the chemotherapy stopped being effective. He started hospice last week. He died peacefully listening to Tibetan music for the final few days and nights at age 81.”

Actor Robert Rusler, who starred alongside Josh Brolin in the 1986 Sacks-written skateboarding romance Thrashin’, remembered the “writer, producer, teacher and connector of people” in a statement on Instagram.

Listing some of his standout credits, Rusler noted, “Where I got to know him from was working with him on the movie #Thrashin. Alan was the creator of the #DAGGERS and #theramplocals. He along with Paul Brown wrote the screenplay and lived the dagger life every day on set. Alan lived his life like a dagger every day since. He was an OG punk rocker.

“A great family man produced a successful podcast, managed bands, he was an innovator with heavy influences in the music business and scene, he was a teacher and mentor to many at Los Angeles community college he had a masters degree in television from Brooklyn College,” he continued. “Alan was a New Yorker through and through, but made Los Angeles his home and stomped Hollywood out with some of the best of us. Alan will be missed and remembered forever. DAGGERS 4 LIFE RIP Ol’ friend.”

Born Dec. 9, 1942, Sacks co-created Welcome Back, Kotter with Gabe Kaplan in 1975. The sitcom ran for four seasons on ABC from 1975 to 1979.

Sacks also produced several films for Disney Channel, including Smart House (1999), the Emmy-winning The Color of Friendship (2000), The Other Me (2000), You Wish! (2003), Pixel Perfect (2004), Camp Rock (2008) and Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience (2009).