TV host, celebrity pitchman Ed McMahon dies at 86 - FTA Files Community Forums for Satellite Equipment

**Putski** · #1 (**permalink**) 06-23-2009, 08:42 AM

Ed McMahon, former sidekick to Johnny Carson on NBC Television's Tonight Show, has died at the age of 86 in Los Angeles.

McMahon died early Tuesday morning at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, according to his agent.

The famed funnyman had been hospitalized with pneumonia and other ailments earlier this year.

Born in Detroit in 1923, McMahon began his career as a bingo caller in Maine at the age of 15, and he put himself through college at a pitchman for vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City boardwalk.

During the Second World War, he trained as a U.S. Marines fighter pilot, and served as a flight instructor and test pilot. He was discharged in 1946.

McMahon graduated from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in 1949, majoring in speech and drama. After graduation, he returned to active duty with the Marines and was sent to Korea in 1953.

McMahon got his first broadcasting job at WLLH-AM in Lowell, Mass., and began his television career at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia.

His major break came in the late 1950s, when ABC decided to replace ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his puppet sidekick, Charlie McCarthy, on the daytime game show Who Do You Trust? Carson was brought in as the host, and McMahon got the "dummy's" role.

When Carson took over the Tonight Show from Jack Paar in 1962, he took McMahon with him. For 30 years, McMahon introduced Carson with a resounding "Heeeeere's Johnny!" and bolstered him with hearty laughs. When Carson retired in 1992, McMahon left the show, too.

McMahon had supporting roles in movies including Fun with **** and Jane (1977), Just Write (1997), Butterfly (1982) and in the film version of Bewitched (2005). He co-hosted Jerry Lewis's muscular dystrophy telethons, and appeared in numerous television commercials, most notably for Budweiser.

McMahon's recent years had been plagued by ill health and financial woes.

In 2002, he sued his insurance company for more than $20 million US, alleging he and his wife Pamela had become ill from toxic mold in his home after contractors cleaned up water damage from a broken pipe. He eventually won $7 million US when it was determined that several contractors had been negligent in allowing mold to grow in his home.

In 2007, he broke his neck in a fall. Last year, he faced foreclosure on his Beverly Hills home when he fell behind on payments on $4.8 million U.S. in mortgage loans. He said the neck injury had left him unable to work, but a deal was announced in December that allowed him to remain in the house.

McMahon is survived by this third wife Pamela, whom he married in 1992, and three daughters and three sons.

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