Gunter Nezhoda, who famously appeared on the hit A&E reality competition series “Storage Wars,” died Tuesday night. He was 67.
The actor’s son Rene Nezhoda told TMZ that his father died in his sleep in Salt Lake City following complications from lung cancer.
Gunter had been diagnosed in September 2022, and the chemotherapy he underwent caused adverse affects.
Rene, 45, said his dad’s lungs had holes in them due to the treatment, and so Gunter had flown to Utah recently in order to undergo emergency surgery.
However, Rene claimed that doctors told his father it was too late and there was “nothing else they could do.”
Gunter died with his youngest son, Ricky Nezhoda, by his side.
Rene posted an emotional video on Instagram Wednesday in which he broke the news of his dad’s death and captioned it, “Very Sad day for the #storagewars #family #RIP #GunterNezhoda.”
“My dad six months ago was diagnosed with lung cancer — he’s been smoking for 30 years,” he said in the clip. “He’s been smoking for a long time.”
Rene then reiterated some of the details he told TMZ about how Gunter died, but noted he wanted to make a video because a lot of fans had “connected” with his father.
“My dad was one of the guys on ‘Storage Wars’ that never really got any hate,” he added.
“People just loved being around him, including the crew, including everybody. Everybody loved working with my dad.”
Rene noted that his family kept Gunter’s cancer battle private because they thought that he would “fully recover” but “unfortunately he didn’t.”
He concluded, “All the love that you guys have shown and support, he really appreciates that, and now hopefully he’s now up there in heaven with my mom dancing again.”
According to Gunter’s IMDB, he was born in Austria and lived in Germany for 10 years before moving to Las Vegas in 1990.
Aside from “Storage Wars,” he appeared in several movies and was a talented musician who played bass with the likes of Pat Travers, Leslie West, Michael Schenker, George Lynch, Kevin Dubrow and many others.
Gunter was also a skilled photographer who shot ads for major corporations including Microsoft, Big O Tires and Ford.