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Captain Lou Albano, the legendary and colorful pro wrestling coach who made memorable cameos in several Cyndi Lauper videos, died Wednesday at his home in Mount Vernon, NY, according to several wrestling sites, including PWInsider.com and PWTorch.com. He was 76.

On Monday, his family told the Miami Herald that Albano had been placed under hospice care for an undisclosed condition. They made it clear it was not cancer, though Albano suffered a heart attack in May 2005.

Albano, real name Louis Vincent Albano, began his career as a wrestler, but later found his groove as an antagonistic manager and coach to several WWF (since renamed WWE) tag team champions, including the Masked Executioners and the Wild Samoans. He retired in 1995 and a year later was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame.

But his biggest contribution to pop culture came with his partnership with Lauper. In the 1980s, Captain Lou Albano appeared in the singer's 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun,' 'She Bop' and 'Time After Time' videos.

This partnership helped kick off the Rock 'n Wrestling project that helped popularize the then-small time wrestling federation to national prominence.

His acting career also included roles in 'Miami Vice,' '227' and the 1987 wrestling movie, 'Body Slam.