Sword swallower Johnny Fox died Sunday at the age of 64 after losing his battle with liver cancer, reports said. The Maryland Renaissance Festival’s longest running performer had appeared on the “Late Show with David Letterman” and a Maalox commercial in which he swallowed light bulbs.

Famous for his amazing stunts, Fox was mourned by Coney Island’s sideshow community.

“He was one of the finest examples of a sideshow virtuoso as well as being a celebrity within our own culture,” Patrick Wall, general manager at the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville said.

Festival president Jules Smith said Fox wrapped up his last season with the festival in October after performing there for 37 years. Fox, who grew up in Hartford, Connecticut, started performing as a teenager in Florida before moving to California to do shows at clubs and prestigious magic institutions. He also performed at the Coney Island Freak Show and had performed alongside the likes of Frank Sinatra, Robin Williams and Dolly Parton before joining the Maryland Renaissance Festival.

“During the time Johnny performed with us, over eight million people passed through our gates. If you talked to most people, they saw his show,” Smith said. “He was exactly in person as he was on stage. Even in the worst parts of his illness, he was always very polite and very kind to people. That’s exactly how he’s been since I met him in 1981. He had a tremendous impact on people.”

The festival’s artistic director, Carolyn Spedden, shared a memory of Fox from the last day of the festival’s season on Facebook.

“He was absorbing the atmosphere into his being. He always told me that this was his home. I didn’t pause to speak with him because what he was doing was important to him. From the intensity of his stare, I gathered he knew this was his last stroll on site and wanted to savor every sight, sound, and smell.” Spedden wrote. “Very few of us live life on our own terms. But Johnny did. Johnny will always be home with us in Revel Grove, because festivals are about people. And no one defines Revel Grove better than Johnny. He was one of a kind.”

In 2016, Fox was diagnosed with hepatitis-C and cirrhosis of the liver and tumors. He was in coma for several days after he fell at his home in Connecticut. He chose not to go to a hospice and instead sought treatment at a facility in Arizona specializing in alternative medicine. By the fall of 2017, Fox had recovered enough to perform again at the Maryland Renaissance Festival.

“Gratitude and optimism and being content have gotten me through so much of my life, and if I can share those things with others and help each other out ... we’re all in this crazy world together,” he told NPR in October.

“There’s love, and there’s fear,” he said. “I choose love.”

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