John William "Johnny" Carson

 John William "Johnny" Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005)

He was best known for his thirty years as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962–1992). Carson received six Emmy Awards, the Governor's Award, and a 1985 Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987. Johnny Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1993. Although his show was already successful by the end of the 1960s, during the 1970s Carson became an American icon and remained so even after his retirement in 1992. He adopted a casual, conversational approach with extensive interaction with guests, an approach pioneered by Arthur Godfrey and previous Tonight Show hosts Steve Allen and Jack Paar. Former late-night host and friend, David Letterman, cited Carson's influence. Carson reportedly loathed what he perceived as disloyalty, and he was displeased when former Tonight Show guest hosts John Davidson and Joan Rivers got their own talk shows. Rivers' show on Fox Network directly competed with Carson during the 1986–1987 season and then it ended. On June 24, 2009, following Ed McMahon's death, Rivers lauded McMahon on Larry King Live but said that after she got her own show Carson never spoke to her again. Carson retired from show business on May 22, 1992, at age 66, when he stepped down as host of The Tonight Show. His farewell was a major media event, often emotional for Carson, his colleagues, and the audiences, and stretched over several nights. In tribute to Carson and his enormous influence, several networks who had late-night variety talk shows "went dark" for the entire hour he did the last show.

On March 19, 1999, Carson suffered a severe heart attack at his home in Malibu, California and was hospitalized in nearby Santa Monica where he underwent quadruple-bypass surgery. Carson was a heavy smoker for decades and, in the early days of his tenure on Tonight, often smoked on-camera. It was reported that as early as the mid-1970s, he would repeatedly say, "These things are killing me." His younger brother recalled that during their last conversation, Carson kept saying, "Those damn cigarettes." At 6:50 AM PST on January 23, 2005, Carson died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of respiratory failure arising from emphysema, he was 79. Carson was cremated, and the ashes given to his widow. There was no public memorial held, in accordance with family wishes .