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Entertainer, Korean War vet Ed McMahon dies

Ed McMahon, the loyal “Tonight Show” sidekick who bolstered boss Johnny Carson with guffaws and a resounding “H-e-e-e-e-e-ere’s Johnny!” for 30 years, died early Tuesday. He was 86.

McMahon, a retired Marine colonel and aviator who served in World War II and Korea, died shortly after midnight at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center surrounded by his wife, Pam, and other family members, said his publicist, Howard Bragman.

Bragman didn’t give a cause of death, saying only that McMahon had a “multitude of health problems the last few months.”

McMahon had bone cancer, among other illnesses, according to a person close to the entertainer, and had been hospitalized for several weeks. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.

The TV personality broke his neck in a fall in March 2007, and battled a series of financial problems as his injuries prevented him from working.

McMahon was commissioned in 1945, according to The California State Military Museum Web site. After receiving his wings, McMahon was sent to Corsair Operational Training Unit at Lee Field, in Green Cove Springs, Fla. (He would later became an instructor at the same school.)

“On the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, McMahon received orders to join the Marine carrier program on the West Coast. His orders were cancelled and he returned to civilian life,” according to the museum’s bio.

In 1952, just after he received his big break at CBS in New York, McMahon was recalled into the Corps and sent to the Korean War where he flew 85 missions in the Cessna OE Bird Dog spotting artillery, according to the museum.

Though his celebrity status continued to rise upon his return to the States, McMahon remained active in the Marine Reserve and eventually retired as a full-bird colonel in 1966.

Born Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. on March 6, 1923, in Detroit, McMahon grew up in Lowell, Mass. He got his start on television playing a circus clown on the 1950-51 variety series “Big Top.”