FOR nearly 30 years Ed McMahon years was Johnny Carson's affable second banana on The Tonight Show, introducing it with his ringing trademark call, "Heeeere's Johnny!"
With his genial, regular-guy features, McMahon had the face of someone you wou
ld buy a used car from. Indeed, for decades he was one of television's most ubiquitous salesmen, advertising everything from boats to beer. He also took a few acting roles and in later years was the host of a US television talent show and wrote some popular books, including his memoirs.
But it was in the role of the faithful Tonto to Carson's wry Lone Ranger that McMahon made his sideman's mark. After he rolled out his introduction like a red carpet for the boss, and after Carson delivered his nightly monologue, McMahon would take his seat on the couch beside the host's desk, chat and banter with Carson a bit before the guests came on, and almost invariably guffaw at his jokes, even when he was the butt of them.
The work made McMahon a familiar face, and voice, in millions of households. The Tonight Show became the US's most popular late-night television diversion, and the "Heeeere's Johnny" introduction became a national catchphrase.
The association began in the late 1950s, when Carson was the host of the comedy quiz show Do You Trust Your Wife? and McMahon was hired to announce the show. In 1962, when Carson moved to The Tonight Show, he took McMahon with him.
McMahon warmed up the studio audienceand served as Carson's straight man until Carson left the show in 1992.
Edward Leo Peter McMahon jnr was born in Detroit. His father, a vaudevillian, had to move a lot to find work, and young Ed had attended 15 high schools by the time he was a senior.
As a boy, McMahon recalled, he dreamed of becoming an entertainer. He shined shoes, sold newspapers, dug ditches, sold peanuts, worked as an usher, laboured on a construction site and sold pans door to door.
He enlisted in the Marine Corps toward the end of the Second World War and became a fighter pilot, but did not see combat. After his discharge he attended the Catholic University of America in Washington, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1949. He then landed a job at a Philadelphia radio station and began appearing on television as, among other things, a clown and the host of a cooking show.
His budding television career was interrupted when he was recalled into military service during the Korean War, but returning from the war, he resumed his television work in Philadelphia while travelling to New York hoping to break into network television. He also pursued a separate career as a businessman.
Even when he got his big break with Carson, he never let up on his business activities. Carson would tweak him about them on The Tonight Show, suggesting that after that night's show was over, McMahon would be selling jam in the elevator.
Over the years McMahon became a paid spokesman for many products and companies, including Budweiser beer, dog food, boats, electronic goods, shampoo and Mercedes-Benz. He marketed his own brand of vodka, and, most recently, he and the rapper MC Hammer promoted a gold-buying business called Cash4Gold.
He did some acting as well. Among the movies he appeared in were The Incident (1967), in which he played a passenger brutalised by young thugs on a New York subway; Slaughter's Big Rip-Off (1973); and Fun With Dick and Jane (1977).
After leaving The Tonight Show, McMahon appeared in various television and radio shows.
There were books, too, most recently the best-selling Here's Johnny! My Memories of Johnny Carson, the Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship (2005).
Despite his many business ventures, McMahon encountered hard times in his last years. He was forced to sell his Beverly Hills mansion last year after falling behind on mortgages, and a former lawyer sued him for non-payment of fees.
He was also plagued by health problems, undergoing a series of operations after breaking his neck in a fall in 2007.
McMahon regarded his friendship with Johnny Carson as a marriage of sorts. "Most comic teams are not good friends or even friends at all," he wrote in Here's Johnny. He added: "Johnny and I were the happy exception."
McMahon married Alyce Ferrell during the Second World War. They had four children and divorced in 1976. His second marriage, to Victoria Valentine, in 1976, ended in divorce in 1989. McMahon and his third wife, Pam Hurn, a fashion designer, were married in 1992.
