The Noid, Domino’s Pizza Spokesman, Dies at 47

“Avoid the Noid” Campaign Led to Years of Agoraphobia, Paranoia


San Antonio—Delbert “The Noid” Krueger died yesterday of acute alcohol intoxication in the small room he rented above the San Antonio YMCA for the last 11 years. The Noid gained prominence in the late 1980s in a series of Domino’s commercials in which his character—a deranged crack head with a homicidal lust for pizza—got into hilarious bits of mischief critics said were reminiscent of early Chaplin. But, after his meteoric rise to fame, the Noid was just as quickly on the other side of the velvet rope. After a recurring role as Balkie’s uncle on Perfect Strangers, the Noid dropped out of public view. “He started drinking with Joe Piscapo and Spuds McKenzie,” says The Noid’s biographer Alex Roberts. “But wherever he went it was the same refrain. ‘Avoid the Noid!’ He couldn’t get parts. He couldn’t get girls. Soon he just decided to live in his room.” Krueger lived the next decade off the modest royalties he received from Noid merchandise, but it was difficult to avoid poverty. His body was found by the cleaning lady when he failed to pay his weekly rent.
“There, but for the grace of God go I,” said the Taco Bell Chihuahua on hearing the news. “You can’t believe you’re going to be popular forever. You’ve got to think about the future, your bitch and your pups.” The Noid was scheduled to appear on VH1’s The Surreal Life next year.