Death and Tributes
On March 19, 1999, Carson at 73, suffered a severe heart attack at his Malibu, California home. He was sleeping, suddenly awoke with severe chest pains and was in a hospital in nearby Santa Monica where he underwent quadruple-bypass surgery.
At 6:50 AM PST on January 23, 2005, Carson died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in West Hollywood of respiratory failure arising from emphysema. He was 79 years old and had revealed his terminal illness to the public in September 2002. His body was cremated and the ashes were given to his wife, Alexis Maas Carson. In accordance with his family's wishes, no public memorial service was held. Numerous tributes were paid to Carson upon his death, recognizing the deep and enduring affection held for him around the world, including a statement by President George W. Bush.
The day after his death, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno paid tribute to Carson with guests Ed McMahon, Bob Newhart, Don Rickles, Drew Carey and K.D. Lang. Letterman followed suit on January 31 with former Tonight Show executive producer Peter Lassally and bandleader Doc Severinsen. At the beginning of this show, Letterman said that for thirty years no matter what was going on in the world, whether people had had a good or bad day, they wanted to end the day by being "tucked in by Johnny." Letterman also told his viewers that the monologue he had just spoken (which had been very well received by the studio audience) had consisted entirely of jokes sent to him by Carson in the last few months of his life. Doc Severinsen ended the Letterman show that night by playing one of Carson's two favorite songs, "Here's That Rainy Day" (the other was "I'll Be Seeing You").
On his final Tonight Show appearance, Carson himself said that while sometimes people who work together for long stretches of time on television don't necessarily like each other, this was not the case with him and McMahon; they were good friends that would have drinks and dinner together, and the camaraderie that they had on the show could not be faked. Carson and McMahon were friends for forty-six years.
The 2005 film The Aristocrats was dedicated to Carson.
At the 1st Annual Comedy Awards on Comedy Central, the Johnny Carson Award was given to David Letterman. At the 2nd Annual Comedy Awards on Comedy Central, the Johnny Carson Award was given to Don Rickles.
A two-hour documentary about his life, Johnny Carson: King of Late Night, aired on PBS on May 14, 2012, as part of their American Masters series. It is narrated by Kevin Spacey and features interviews with many of Carson's family, fellow comedians and proteges.
Read more about this topic: Johnny Carson
Famous quotes containing the words death and, death and/or tributes:
“I don’t know much about death and the sorriest lesson I’ve learned is that words, my most trusted guardians against chaos, offer small comfort in the face of anyone’s dying.”
—Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946)
“If it be aught toward the general good,
Set honor in one eye, and death i’th’ other,
And I will look on both indifferently;
For let the gods so speed me as I love
The name of honor more than I fear death.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The fame of heroes owes little to the extent of their conquests and all to the success of the tributes paid to them.”
—Jean Genet (1910–1986)