Ed McMahon Dies at 86

Ed McMahon, known for his "Heeeeeere's Johnny!" trademark call, passed away in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning. He died at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, surrounded by his family.

According to his IMDB biography, McMahon's first time in front of a microphone was at 15 years old when he served as a "caller" for a Maine bingo game. He toured the carnival and state fair circuit, after which he was a Marine fighter pilot during the second World War.

He put himself through Catholic University in Washington, D.C. by selling vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City boardwalk, then hosted a late-night Philadelphia talk show in the late 1950's.

In 1959 Johnny Carson hired McMahon as his "straight man" on the show Do You Trust Your Wife, and when Carson began hosting The Late Show in 1962, he brought McMahon along.

McMahon hosted several talk shows, appeared in several films, and guest starred on television shows every so often, but I most remember him as the host for Star Search. I was glued to my TV each week as a child, judging the performers and models who would grace his stage and debating their merits and flaws with the rest of my family.

McMahon was a great Hollywood presence, and, as he said about the 2007 demolishing of the Burbank studio where The Late Show was filmed, his death certainly can be seen as "the end of an era".