Coach, whose full name was Ernie Pantusso, was a beloved character on the TV show Cheers , portrayed by Nicholas Colasanto. Colasanto, who played Coach, suffered from heart disease worsened by alcoholism and was hospitalized during the show's third season. His health deteriorated, and he died of a heart attack on February 12, 1985, at the age of 61
. Following Colasanto's death, the show's creators decided not to recast the role of Coach. Instead, the character was written out as deceased without an explicit cause of death given on the show. The fourth-season premiere episode "Birth, Death, Love and Rice" addressed Coach's death and introduced Woody Boyd, played by Woody Harrelson, as a new bartender who replaced Coach. Woody was written in as Coach's pen pal, and the characters referenced Coach's passing respectfully in subsequent episodes
. Coach's last full episode was "Cheerio, Cheers," filmed in late 1984, and he made a brief final appearance in the cold opening of the season 3 finale "Rescue Me." The character was fondly remembered by the cast and fans, and a photo of Geronimo that Colasanto kept in his dressing room was placed on the bar's wall as a tribute. In the series finale, Sam Malone straightens this photo as a remembrance of Coach
. In summary, Coach's departure from Cheers was due to the real-life death of actor Nicholas Colasanto, and the show honored both the actor and the character by writing Coach out as deceased and introducing a new character to fill his role.
