Carson Sidekick Ed McMahon, Dead at 86

Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson’s perennial sidekick on NBC’s The Tonight Show died today at UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Hospital. He was 86. According to McMahon publicist Howard Bragman, the entertainer’s passing was from a “multitude of health problems the last few months.”
 
Born in Detroit on March 6, 1923, McMahon got an early start on television as the announcer of a game show in 1956 called Who Do You Trust?, which was hosted by Johnny Carson.  When Caron succeeded Jack Paar as host of The Tonight Show in 1962, he took McMahon with him, and the two worked side by side for 29 years.

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