Johnny Carson, the 'Tonight Show' TV host who served America a smooth nightcap of celebrity banter, droll comedy and heartland charm for 30 years, has died. He was 79. 'Mr. Carson passed away peacefully early Sunday morning,' his nephew, Jeff Sotzing, told The Associated Press. `He was surrounded by his family, whose loss will be immeasurable. There will be no memorial service.'
The legend that filled so many hearts with joy and laughter, Johnny Carson died after a long and difficult fight with the respiratory illness, emphysema.
The boyish-looking Nebraska native with the disarming grin, who survived every attempt to topple him from his late-night talk show throne, was a star who managed never to distance himself from his audience.
Carson took over "The Tonight Show" from Jack Paar on Oct. 1, 1962, and, preferring to retire at the top of his game, voluntarily surrendered it to Jay Leno on May 22, 1992. During those three decades, between 10 million and 15 million Americans could not sleep weeknights unless they were reassured by the durable and droll Carson. Billy Wilder, the film director and wit, regarded him as "the Valium and Nembutal of the nation."
During his reign, Carson was one of the most powerful performers on television, discovering new talent, rescuing old performers from oblivion and earning millions of dollars for his network, the National Broadcasting Company. In his heyday he generated approximately 17 percent of the network's total profit and was, by any reasonable assessment, its most lustrous star since Toscanini. He held an overwhelming majority of the late-night viewers in the palm of his hand and his show was the biggest single money-maker in NBC history.
Carson's great strength as a talk-show host was, quite simply, that he allowed his guests to talk, and drew natural conversations out of them in a way Letterman, Leno and O'Brien never have. He didn't have to be the center of attention, which in the end made him all the more captivating. He was a class act, and like all classics he was timeless.
His personal life could not match the perfection of his career. Carson was married four times, divorced three. In 1991, one of his three sons, 39-year-old Ricky, was killed in a car accident.
He won a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 1992, with the first President Bush saying, `With decency and style he's made America laugh and think.' In 1993, he was celebrated by the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors for career achievement.
His passing away is a sad loss to the Nation.
