R.I.P Ed McMahon
Television personality and Tonight Show veteran Ed McMahon died June 23 at age 86. He passed away at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles; he’d been receiving treatment for pneumonia for the past several weeks. The announcer, game show host, and sometime actor was best known as Johnny Carson’s right-hand man on The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992, but he began using his stentorian voice to make a living as a 15-year-old bingo caller and carnival barker. Before he could make his way to Hollywood, though, WWII and the Korean conflict intervened, turning the Los Angeles native into a fighter and test pilot for the U.S. Marines. After retiring from active duty, he returned home to L.A., where he got his big break in 1956, pairing with Carson on the game show Who Do You Trust? When Carson decamped for his Tonight Show berth, McMahon went along, remaining Carson’s sidekick for the next 30 years, announcing the comic in his signature “Heeeeeeere’s Johnny!” and punctuating Carson’s jokes with catchphrases in the making, a booming “Yes!” or “You are correct, sir!”In February 2009, it was revealed that McMahon had been hospitalized for a month, suffering from bone cancer. He leaves a legacy as a prolific performer. R.I.P
