Ed McMahon dead at 86

After length legal battles and health crises, Ed McMahon died early today at age 86.

McMahon died shortly after midnight at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center surrounded by his wife, Pam, and other family members, said his publicist, Howard Bragman.

No word on the cause of death, but Bragman said McMahon had a “multitude of health problems the last few months.” Among them was bone cancer, according to a person close to the entertainer, and he had been hospitalized for several weeks.

McMahon also broke his neck in a fall in March 2007 and had pneumonia earlier this year. He had battled bankruptcy and foreclosure for the last few years in part because his health prevented him from working.

To one generation, McMahon was the guy with the big check from Publisher’s Clearinghouse, but to others, he was best known as Johnny Carson’s sidekick on “The Tonight Show” from 1962 until Carson’s retirement in 1992.

“You can’t imagine hooking up with a guy like Carson,” McMahon said an interview with The Associated Press in 1993. “There’s the old phrase, hook your wagon to a star. I hitched my wagon to a great star.”

And McMahon was a great star himself, who will be truly missed.