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In this Aug. 27, 2003 file photo, entertainer Ed McMahon waves to the media upon arriving at "The Bob Hope Memorial Tribute" at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. McMahon died, Tuesday, June 23, 2009, at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center surrounded by his wife, Pam, and other family members, said his publicist, Howard Bragman.
NCLINE VILLAGE — Ed McMahon was “a master of sales and the spoken word,” said Incline Village resident Judy Spees who worked with McMahon on The Tonight Show from 1974 to 1985.
The loyal “Tonight” show sidekick who bolstered boss Johnny Carson with guffaws and a resounding “H-e-e-e-e-e-ere's Johnny!” for 30 years, died early Tuesday. He was 86.
As a page and then an audio assistant, Spees worked with McMahon on commercials and remembers watching him warm up an audience for Carson in Burbank, Calif.
“Ed had a routine of standing behind the side curtain and listening to the audience,” she told the Bonanza. “He would size them up and find out how hard he would have to work to warm them up.”
Many nights his first like was “You sound like a Friday night crowd,” Spees said. On the occasion when McMahon told the crowd they were a Friday night crowd on a Friday night he would follow up with an anecdote.
“How many of you remember when you used to get paid on Friday in cash?” Spees remembered McMahon telling the audience. “When you had a little scratch in your pocket and you'd take a girl out. You could tell what kind of a night it was going to be when she ordered. If she ordered a Shirley Temple it was all over right there folks, no stopping by the drug store that night, but if she ordered a scotch double up on the rocks, water back you knew you were in for a good time.”
His warm up routine and signature introduction made McMahon the perfect straight man for Carson's antics, Spees said.
“Ed has followed Johnny to the late night show in the sky,” Spees said. “We just have to look up to see two shining stars.”
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 didn't 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 fall in March 2007, and battled a series of financial problems as his injuries prevented him from working.
His medical and financial problems kept him in the headlines in his last years. It was reported in June 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 involving other alleged debts continued.
He spoofed his own problems with a spot that aired during the 2009 Super Bowl promoting a cash-for-gold business. Pairing up with rap artist MC Hammer, he explained how easy it is to turn gold items into cash, jokingly saying “Goodbye, old friend” to a gold toilet and rolling out a convincing “H-e-e-e-e-e-ere's money!”
Born Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. on March 6, 1923, in Detroit, McMahon grew up in Lowell, Mass. He got his start on television playing a circus clown on the 1950-51 variety series “Big Top.” But the World War II Marine veteran interrupted his career to serve as a fighter pilot in Korea.
He joined “Who Do You Trust?” in 1958, its second year, the start of his long association with Carson. It was a partnership that outlasted their multiple marriages, which provided regular on-air fodder for jokes.
While Carson built his career around “Tonight” and withdrew from the limelight after his retirement, McMahon took a different path. He was host of several shows over the years, including “The Kraft Music Hall” (1968) and the amateur talent contest “Star Search,” whose competitors included over the years Justin Timberlake, Usher, LeAnn Rimes, Adam Sandler and Rosie O'Donnell.
He was a longtime co-host of the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon, a Labor Day weekend institution, and was co-host with Dick Clark of “TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes.”
“On the telethon, he was my right-hand man,” Lewis told the Associated Press. “It's hard to imagine doing the show without him.”
McMahon also did behind-the-scenes work for the association, Lewis said, adding: “Of the thousands of celebrities who've helped ‘my kids' during the last 50-plus years, none has given more, and given more gladly, than Ed McMahon.”
Clark said: “We were together for years. Ed was a big man, had big talent and a really big heart. We'll all miss him.”
McMahon and Clark also teamed up as pitchmen for American Family Publishers' sweepstakes, with their faces a familiar sight on contest entry forms and in TV commercials. McMahon was known for his ongoing commercials for Budweiser as well.
He had supporting roles in several movies, including “Fun With Dick and Jane” (1977) and “Just Write” (1997). He took on his first regular TV series job in the 1997 WB sitcom “The Tom Show” with Tom Arnold.
McMahon released his autobiography, “For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times,” in 1998. In it, he recounts the birth of “Tonight.”
“Let's just go down there and entertain the hell out of them,” Carson told him before the first show. Wrote McMahon: “That was the only advice I ever got from him.”
In 1993, he recalled his first meeting with Carson after they left “Tonight.”
“The first thing he said was, ‘I really miss you. You know, it was fun, wasn't it?'” McMahon recalled. “I said, ‘It was great.' And it was. It was just great.”
Besides his wife, Pam, McMahon is survived by children Claudia, Katherine, Linda, Jeffrey and Lex.
Bragman said no funeral arrangements have been made.
The loyal “Tonight” show sidekick who bolstered boss Johnny Carson with guffaws and a resounding “H-e-e-e-e-e-ere's Johnny!” for 30 years, died early Tuesday. He was 86.
As a page and then an audio assistant, Spees worked with McMahon on commercials and remembers watching him warm up an audience for Carson in Burbank, Calif.
“Ed had a routine of standing behind the side curtain and listening to the audience,” she told the Bonanza. “He would size them up and find out how hard he would have to work to warm them up.”
Many nights his first like was “You sound like a Friday night crowd,” Spees said. On the occasion when McMahon told the crowd they were a Friday night crowd on a Friday night he would follow up with an anecdote.
“How many of you remember when you used to get paid on Friday in cash?” Spees remembered McMahon telling the audience. “When you had a little scratch in your pocket and you'd take a girl out. You could tell what kind of a night it was going to be when she ordered. If she ordered a Shirley Temple it was all over right there folks, no stopping by the drug store that night, but if she ordered a scotch double up on the rocks, water back you knew you were in for a good time.”
His warm up routine and signature introduction made McMahon the perfect straight man for Carson's antics, Spees said.
“Ed has followed Johnny to the late night show in the sky,” Spees said. “We just have to look up to see two shining stars.”
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 didn't 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 fall in March 2007, and battled a series of financial problems as his injuries prevented him from working.
His medical and financial problems kept him in the headlines in his last years. It was reported in June 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 involving other alleged debts continued.
He spoofed his own problems with a spot that aired during the 2009 Super Bowl promoting a cash-for-gold business. Pairing up with rap artist MC Hammer, he explained how easy it is to turn gold items into cash, jokingly saying “Goodbye, old friend” to a gold toilet and rolling out a convincing “H-e-e-e-e-e-ere's money!”
Born Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. on March 6, 1923, in Detroit, McMahon grew up in Lowell, Mass. He got his start on television playing a circus clown on the 1950-51 variety series “Big Top.” But the World War II Marine veteran interrupted his career to serve as a fighter pilot in Korea.
He joined “Who Do You Trust?” in 1958, its second year, the start of his long association with Carson. It was a partnership that outlasted their multiple marriages, which provided regular on-air fodder for jokes.
While Carson built his career around “Tonight” and withdrew from the limelight after his retirement, McMahon took a different path. He was host of several shows over the years, including “The Kraft Music Hall” (1968) and the amateur talent contest “Star Search,” whose competitors included over the years Justin Timberlake, Usher, LeAnn Rimes, Adam Sandler and Rosie O'Donnell.
He was a longtime co-host of the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon, a Labor Day weekend institution, and was co-host with Dick Clark of “TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes.”
“On the telethon, he was my right-hand man,” Lewis told the Associated Press. “It's hard to imagine doing the show without him.”
McMahon also did behind-the-scenes work for the association, Lewis said, adding: “Of the thousands of celebrities who've helped ‘my kids' during the last 50-plus years, none has given more, and given more gladly, than Ed McMahon.”
Clark said: “We were together for years. Ed was a big man, had big talent and a really big heart. We'll all miss him.”
McMahon and Clark also teamed up as pitchmen for American Family Publishers' sweepstakes, with their faces a familiar sight on contest entry forms and in TV commercials. McMahon was known for his ongoing commercials for Budweiser as well.
He had supporting roles in several movies, including “Fun With Dick and Jane” (1977) and “Just Write” (1997). He took on his first regular TV series job in the 1997 WB sitcom “The Tom Show” with Tom Arnold.
McMahon released his autobiography, “For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times,” in 1998. In it, he recounts the birth of “Tonight.”
“Let's just go down there and entertain the hell out of them,” Carson told him before the first show. Wrote McMahon: “That was the only advice I ever got from him.”
In 1993, he recalled his first meeting with Carson after they left “Tonight.”
“The first thing he said was, ‘I really miss you. You know, it was fun, wasn't it?'” McMahon recalled. “I said, ‘It was great.' And it was. It was just great.”
Besides his wife, Pam, McMahon is survived by children Claudia, Katherine, Linda, Jeffrey and Lex.
Bragman said no funeral arrangements have been made.
