Swamp People Star Drops Dead on Boat

A tough-as-nails Cajun star of the History Channel's Swamp People dropped dead in his boat yesterday. The cause of death was not immediately known, but witnesses said Mitchell Guist, who would have turned 49 on Friday, appeared to suffer a seizure shortly after launching his boat for another day of plying the Louisiana bayous for food. Paramedics responding to the scene on Belle River near Baton Rouge were unable to revive him, reports WBRZ-TV.

Guist and his brother, Glenn, became unlikely reality stars of the Swamp People series, which follows alligator, snake, frog, squirrel and catfish hunters in Louisiana's Atchafalaya swamp country. "We are extremely saddened to report that our friend and beloved member of the Swamp People family, Mitchell Guist, has passed away," said a History Channel statement. "Mitchell passed on the swamp, doing what he loved." (More Mitchell Guist stories.)