RIP Ed McMahon
In this May 22, 1992, file photo, talk show host Johnny Carson, right, is shown with the show’s announcer Ed McMahon during the final taping of the “Tonight Show” in Burbank, Calif. McMahon died today at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center surrounded by his wife, Pam, and other family members, said his publicist, Howard Bragman. (Associated Press file photo)
Ed McMahon in 2007
TV personality Ed McMahon, who added “H-e-e-e-e-e-ere’s Johnny!” to the cultural lexicon, died early this morning at a Los Angeles hospital, the Associated Press is reporting. He was 86.
McMahon died shortly after midnight at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center surrounded by his wife Pam and other family members, said his publicist Howard Bragman.
Bragman did not give a cause of death, saying only that McMahon had a “multitude of health problems the last few months.”
McMahon broke his neck in a March 2007 fall. His injuries kept him from working and created a series of financial problems for the former “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” sidekick.
McMahon and Carson previously worked together for nearly five years on the game show “Who Do You Trust?” When Carson took over NBC’s late-night show from Jack Paar in October 1962, he took McMahon with him.
McMahon was Carson’s loyal sidekick, heartily introducing him and always chuckling at his jokes, until the host retired in 1992.
After Carson’s monologue, McMahon and the host would chat before the guests took the stage.
“We would just have a free-for-all,” McMahon told the AP. “Now to sit there, with one of the brightest, most well-read men I’ve ever met, the funniest, and just to hold your own in that conversation. … I loved that.”
When Carson died in 2005, McMahon said he was “like a brother to me” and recalled talking with him on the phone a few months earlier.
McMahon’s medical and financial problems made news in his last years. It was reported in summer 2008 that he was facing possible foreclosure on his Beverly Hills home. By year’s end, a deal was worked out allowing him to stay in his home, but legal action over other alleged debts continued, according to the AP.
McMahon could still laugh at himself: poking fun at his money issues with a 2009 Super Bowl ad promoting a cash-for-gold business. The spot paired him with MC Hammer, as they extolled how easy it is to turn gold items into cash, with McMahon jokingly saying “Goodbye, old friend” to a gold toilet and spouting a big “H-e-e-e-e-e-ere’s money!”
Our thoughts are with McMahon’s friends, family and fans. To read the AP obituary, click here.
-BAM
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RIP Ed McMahon. The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon is timeless Americana. Let us also not forget that Ed McMahon was the host of the Star Search game show, which was really the original American Idol if you think about it.