Obituaries

Johnny Carson's sidekick and Publisher's Clearing House pitchman Ed McMahon has died at the age of 86.

He had been in bad shape both physically and financially in recent years.

Initially unable to work after breaking his neck in a fall in 2007, McMahon made news a year later when he defaulted on $4.8 million in mortgage loans and was facing the possible foreclosure of his multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills estate, which had been on the market for two years. An outside party purchased the mortgage and the McMahons were still living in the home.

"If you spend more money than you make, you know what happens. A couple of divorces thrown in, a few things like that," McMahon, in a neck brace, explained in June 2008 on CNN's “Larry King Live,” where he was accompanied by his wife, Pam.