CNN) -- Ed McMahon, the longtime pitchman and Johnny Carson sidekick whose "Heeeeeeerre's Johnny!" became a part of the vernacular, has died.

Ed McMahon had suffered several health problems in recent years.

McMahon passed away peacefully shortly after midnight at the Ronald Reagan/UCLA Medical Center, his publicist, Howard Bragman, said Tuesday McMahon, 86, was hospitalized in February with pneumonia and other medical problems.


He had suffered a number of health problems in recent years, including a neck injury caused by a 2007 fall. In 2002, he sued various insurance companies and contractors over mold in his house and later collected a $7 million settlement.

Though he later hosted a variety of shows -- including "Star Search" and "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes," McMahon's biggest fame came alongside Carson on "The Tonight Show," which Carson hosted from 1962 to 1992. The two met not long after Carson began hosting the game show "Who Do You Trust?" in 1957. "Johnny didn't look as if he was dying to see me," McMahon, who was hosting a show on a Philadelphia TV station, told People magazine in 1980 about the pair's first meeting. "He was standing with his back to the door, staring at a couple of workmen putting letters on a theater marquee. I walked over and stood beside him. Finally the two guys finished, and Johnny asked, 'What have you been doing?' I told him. He said, 'Good to meet you, Ed,' shook my hand, and I was out of the office. The whole meeting was about as exciting as watching a traffic light change."


Though McMahon was surprised to be offered the job as Carson's sidekick, the two soon proved to have a strong chemistry. Carson was, by nature, introverted and dry-witted; McMahon was the boisterous and outgoing second banana, content to give Carson straight lines or laugh uproariously at his jokes (a characteristic much-parodied by comedians). Carson made cracks about McMahon's weight, his drinking and the men's trouble with divorce. McMahon was married three times; Carson, who died in 2005, had four wives.

McMahon was also the show's designated pitchman, a talent he honed to perfection during "Tonight's" 30-year run with Carson, even if sometimes the in-show commercial spots fell flat.


For one of the show's regular sponsors, Alpo dog food, McMahon usually extolled the virtues of the product while a dog eagerly gobbled down a bowl. But one day the show's regular dog wasn't available, and the substitute pooch wasn't very hungry.


McMahon recalled the incident in his 1998 memoir, "For Laughing Out Loud.""Then I saw Johnny come into my little commercial area. He got down on his hands and knees and came over to me. ... I started to pet Johnny. Nice boss, I was thinking as I pet him on the head, nice boss. By this point the audience was hysterical. ... I just kept going. I was going to get my commercial done.'The next time you're looking at the canned dog food ...' -- he rubbed his cheek against my leg -- ... reach for the can that contains real beef.' Johnny got up on his knees and started begging for more. I started petting him again ... and then he licked my hand."


McMahon also promoted Budweiser, American Family Insurance and -- during the most recent Super Bowl -- Cash4Gold.com. Entertainment Weekly named him No. 1 on its list of TV's greatest sidekicks.


Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 6, 1923. His father was a promoter, and McMahon remembered moving a lot during his childhood."I changed towns more often than a pickpocket," McMahon told People.


He later joined the Marines and served in World War II and Korea. Though McMahon was well-rewarded by NBC -- the 1980 People article listed his salary between $600,000 and $1 million -- his divorces and some poor investments took their toll. In June 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported that McMahon was $644,000 in arrears on a $4.8 million loan for a home in Beverly Hills, California, and his lender had filed a notice of default. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, told CNN's Larry King that McMahon had gotten caught in a spate of financial problems.


"If you spend more money than you make, you know what happens. And it can happen. You know, a couple of divorces thrown in, a few things like that," said McMahon, who added that he hadn't worked much since the neck injury.McMahon later struck a deal that allowed him to stay in the house.



Billy Red Lyons dies By Greg Oliver - Producer, SLAM! Wrestling


To a generation of fans who grew up with Hulkamania, Billy Red Lyons, who died Monday after a long battle with cancer, was the pitchman telling us "Don'cha dare miss it!" But more importantly, he was a link to the past as the WWF trampled down the history of the sport. He was also my friend.


As I go back through my notes from our many conversations, I find a real lack of stories about HIS career. Instead, my conversations with Billy Red lean more towards his thoughts on other people. There's Houston promoter Paul Boesch: "Whatever he promised you, you got." And Skull Murphy: "He was a natural and he was a great guy." There are countless others as well. Lyons was always willing to help me with whatever project I was working on, whether it was SLAM! Wrestling, a magazine piece or my first book, The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Canadians. In fact, he told me how much he enjoyed my book, and proved it by coming to the book launch, telling friends about it, and attending to a book signing in April 2004 in Kitchener. That signing led to a deeper friendship with Billy Red. We had lunch after the signing with my wife Meredith and my very good friend Terry Dart. Billy Red and Terry didn't know each other, but they knew of each other. Terry had seen Billy wrestle for years, and then enjoyed him on the WWF Maple Leaf Wrestling broadcasts. Billy had heard stories from the boys about an incredibly dedicated (obsessive?) wrestling fan from London who took some great photos. Billy Red was incredibly gracious as Terry asked question after question. He wasn't an attention-getter as a story-teller, like some wrestlers are. We had to lean in to hear the tale, as Lyons' voice wasn't quite as strong as it used to be before his strokes. But tell stories he did, from the roads of Texas to the Municipal Pool in Hamilton, where the ring was set up over the swimming pool. Of course, Maple Leaf Wrestling came up. We talked about Jack Tunney's death in that January, and how a snowstorm that day prevented Billy from going to his boss's funeral. And now, with Lyons, Tunney, and ring announcer Norm Kimber all gone, there isn't much left from Maple Leaf Wrestling. From there, we'd chat every few months, whether it was for a story or a book. "How are you doing, Billy?" I'd ask. "I am still breathing and on the right side of the grass," he'd respond. One of the favourite pieces I did was the lengthy question and answer session that the SLAM! Wrestling readers helped out with. Billy Red's sly, cheeky sense of humour is quite evident in that piece. He never took himself too seriously, though was fiercely proud of his chosen profession. I last saw Billy back before Christmas, at a bi-weekly dinner of Hamilton-area wrestlers, spearheaded by Ernie Moore. Billy was sort of a Godfather-like personage at the gatherings, the one who really succeeded out of Hamilton, but returned home. The oldtimers would angle for time with the frail but still sharp Lyons, who continued to drive himself to the gatherings from his Kitchener home. It was Moore who called me with the news this morning, that the cancer of the spine had finally gotten to our friend, and that he died Monday. Moore, who worked under a mask as one of countless "Executioners" over the years, recounted a recent dinner he organized in Cambridge, so that Billy Red didn't have to drive as far. "We followed him back to his home, and helped him inside," recalled Moore. "I didn't think I'd be seeing him again." Indeed, it was the last time he saw his friend. Billy Snip was 77 at the time of his death, having had his birthday on May 17th. Goodbye, Billy. Thanks for the memories, your eternal optimism, chuckle and your friendship.

(CNN) -- Farrah Fawcett, the blonde-maned actress whose best-selling poster and "Charlie's Angels" stardom made her one of the most famous faces in the world, died Thursday. She was 62.

Farrah Fawcett rose to fame in the 1970s, thanks to a best-selling poster and the hit show "Charlie Angels."

Fawcett's death was confirmed by Paul Bloch, one of her representatives at Rogers and Cowan, an entertainment public relations firm.

Fawcett, who checked into a hospital in early April, had been battling anal cancer on and off for three years.

Bloch told CNN that Ryan O'Neal, Fawcett's romantic partner since the mid-1980s, and her friend Alana Stewart were with Fawcett at Saint John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, when she died.

Michael Jackson Dies

Posted Jun 25th 2009 5:20PM by TMZ Staff

Michael JacksonWe've just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50.Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon and paramedics were unable to revive him. We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.

Michael is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince "Blanket" Michael Jackson II.

Jackson had 13 number one hits during his solo career.

R.I.P. Sky Saxon

By Joe Gross Thursday, June 25, 2009, 10:18 AM

Sky Saxon, founder of the brilliant ’60s garage band the Seeds, died Thursday morning at St. David’s Hospital.The newly minted Austinite, born Richard Marsh, was hospitalized Monday with what doctors suspected was an infection of the internal organs, but cause of death has not yet been released.

Saxon fell ill last Thursday, but performed at Saturday at Antone’s with recent Austin collaborators Shapes Have Fangs.

Sky’s wife Sabrina Saxon posted news of his passing on Facebook this morning: “Sky has passed over and YaHoWha is waiting for him at the gate. He will soon be home with his Father. I’m so sorry I couldn’t keep him here with us. More later. I’m sorry.”

We are sorry as well. Saxon was the founder of the Seeds, one of the all-time great first-wave garage rock bands. If the Rolling Stones was the sound of five British guys trying to imitate Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf and failing in new and strange ways, ’60s garage rock was the sound of American kids trying to imitate the Stones and (similarly, brilliantly) missing the mark.

The Seeds fell together in 1965 around a core of Saxon and guitarist Jan Savage with keyboardist Daryl Hooper and drummer Rick Andridge. The bands’s first couple of singles — ‘Can’t Seem To Make You Mine’ and ‘Pushin’ Too Hard’ — are ’60s punk classics, snotty and fuzzy and brief.

Check out their first two albums — ‘The Seeds’ and ‘A Web of Sound,’ both from that magic rock year 1966 — for perfect examples of proto-psychedelic roar. After a few more records, Saxon broke up the Seeds in 1970, joined the spiritual commune the Source Family, adopted the name Sunlight and played with the Source Family band YaHoWha 13 now and then.

He continuted to make albums since with various lineups, distributing his music via the Internet at www.skysaxon.com. He came to Austin in March for the second annual Psych Fest and never really left, according to his publicist, keeping a very low profile until recently.