entertainmentdissected

Seen here on the final Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carsonbroadcast in May 1992, Ed McMahon enjoyed perhaps the role as television’s most famous and longest-running sidekick. (picture courtesy of AP/Douglas C. Pizac)

Three weeks following the death of actor David Carradine, Hollywood lost two more icons this week, with the passing of Tonight Show second banana Ed McMahon and Charlie’s Angelsicon Farrah Fawcett.

McMahon, who died Tuesday in Los Angeles at the age of 86, had experienced various financial and health troubles over the last several years. A spokesman did not reveal exact cause of death, but some believe his bone cancer played a significant role in his passing. Fawcett died this morning in Santa Monica at the age of 62, after battling anal and liver cancer the last few years.

For 30 years, McMahon served as late-night king Johnny Carson’s announcer and sidekick on The Tonight Show; “Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeere’s Johnny!” became one of the most iconic phrases uttered on television. Furthermore, McMahon became known for his hosting duties on the syndicated Star Search talent program, as well as TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes and the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon.

As if he did not have enough toes dipped into pop culture, McMahon ingrained himself further into the public consciousness during the 1980s and 1990s as a representative of American Family Publishers, the main sweepstakes rival to Publishers Clearing House. His image became so synonymous with sweepstakes that a lot of people actually thought he was with PCH rather than the company he actually represented.

Farrah Fawcett set many an adolescent (and adult) male’s hearts racing with her infamous swimsuit poster, which went on to become one of the biggest-selling posters in history. (image courtesy of Pro Arts Inc.)

Like McMahon during his 40-year-plus career, Fawcett also left her mark via various projects, but forever will be known for one, sex-symbol-making endeavor. From 1976-1977 (plus some guest appearances in later seasons), Fawcett (then married to The Six Million Dollar Man’s Lee Majors) starred alongside Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson on ABC’s Charlie’s Angels. She became an overnight sensation, with the series’ popularity and her role of Jill Munroe sending sales of her infamous one-piece red-swimsuit poster skyrocketing.

In addition, long before Jennifer Aniston’s tresses ruled in the 1990s, the “Farrah do”had women worldwide running to their hairdressers hoping to emulate the look. To this day, the retro style remains instantly recognizable on a worldwide level, anytime a woman opts for a  blond-feathered hairdo (though any color will suffice).

After leaving the jiggle of Charlie’s Angels, Fawcett had little luck in her quest for a successful film career. However, she later won praise for her turn in the off-Broadway production of Extremities (later starring as the almost-rape-victim in the film version, as well). She continued with dramatic roles, earning an Emmy nomination for her work as a battered wife who kills her abusive husband in NBC’s The Burning Bed.

Returning to her sex-kitten ways, Fawcett posed nude for Playboy twice during the 1990s (her first pictorial boosting the magazine to its highest single-issue sales of the decade). In recent years, Fawcett’s most memorable television outing came via a 1997  appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, during which she appeared distracted and incoherent. Just last month, NBC aired Farrah’s Story, a two-hour documentary chronicling her battle with cancer.

Fawcett’s longtime love Ryan O’Neal said that as soon as she could, they would finally marry. Alas, the couple- romantically involved since 1982 and parents to son Redmond- did not get the opportunity to wed, but no doubt they will do so in a cancer-free, better life.

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