Hospitalized Ed McMahon celebrates 86th year

updated 2:53 p.m. ET March 5, 2009

NEW YORK - Ed McMahon’s lengthy hospital stay hasn’t dampened his spirits as he prepares to observe his 86th birthday on Friday.

The veteran TV personality plans to mark the occasion at an undisclosed Los Angeles hospital with friends and family on hand, according to spokesman Howard Bragman.

“Let’s call it an intimate get-together,” Bragman said.

McMahon, the longtime sidekick of talk-show host Johnny Carson, has been hospitalized for several weeks in intensive care for treatment of pneumonia and other ailments.

“The doctors are very optimistic right now. He’s very strong, a tough guy, and he’s doing better every day. That’s all you can hope for,” Bragman said on Thursday.

McMahon has had both health and financial challenges in recent years. He broke his neck in a fall in 2007. He faced foreclosure on his home last year because he said the injury left him unable to work, but a deal was announced last December that would allow him to stay in the house.

A seasoned TV pitchman, McMahon was seen during this year’s Super Bowl telecast touting a cash-for-gold business. In the past, he appeared in commercials for American Family Publishers’ sweepstakes.

He had supporting roles in movies including “Fun With Dick and Jane” (1977) and “Just Write” (1997), and in TV series including the 1997 WB sitcom “The Tom Show” with Tom Arnold. For more than a decade, he was host of the syndicated talent competition, “Star Search.”

McMahon was Carson’s announcer and second banana on “Tonight” from 1962 until Carson’s retirement in 1992, introducing him with a resounding “H-e-e-e-e-e-ere’s Johnny!” and bolstering the host with hearty laughs. But their lengthy partnership began before that, on the daytime game show “Who Do You Trust?” in the 1950s. Carson died in 2005.

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