Michael Gray, who starred on the 1970s Saturday morning kids show Shazam! as Billy Batson, the teenager who in a puff of smoke turns into the superhero Captain Marvel , died Friday in Palm Desert of natural causes, a family spokesperson announced.

Gray frequently graced the covers of Tiger Beat and other popular teen magazines as he landed his first series gig as a student doctor named Ronnie Collins on the first season of the 1972-74 NBC sitcom The Little People , starring Brian Keith and Shelley Fabares .

Gray’s Billy had but to utter one word — “shazam” — to be transformed into Captain Marvel (played by Jackson Bostwick and then John Davey) on the live-action CBS show that aired for three seasons (1974-76). Watch the opening of the show here .

“I remember when we were experimenting with the change from Billy to Captain Marvel, using a sort of flash device, and poof — the smoke would clear and I was a little singed,” Gray recalled in an interview with Comic Book Resources. “They changed that real quick.…