Television personality Ed McMahon died at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Tuesday (June 23) in Los Angeles at the age of 86.
McMahon is best known as Johnny Carson‘s Tonight Show sidekick from 1962 to 1992. McMahon was most memorably known to announce each show with the iconic phrase, “Heeeeeeere’s Johnny!”
Outside of the Tonight Show, McMahon hosted one of the original talent competition shows, Star Search along with TV Bloopers and Practical Jokes.
Although the official cause of death is unknown, McMahon‘s publicist noted that he had a “multitude of health problems the last few months.”
In his last Tonight Show broadcast, Carson paid tribute to McMahon saying “Ed has been a rock for 30 years, sitting over here next to me…We have been friends for 34 years. A lot of people who work together on television don’t necessarily like each other. This hasn’t been true…We’re good friends; you can’t fake that on television.”
RIP.
