Professional sidekick, Publishers Cleaning House spokesperson and host of Star Search Ed McMahon died this morning a little after midnight at UCLA Hospital, according to his spokesperson Howard Braggman. Best known as Johnny Carson’s straight man, McMahon would deliver the rousing " Heeeeeere’s Johnny!" at the beginning of each Tonight Show.  McMahon was 86 at the time of his death and suffering from bone cancer, reports the Los Angeles Times, citing unnamed sources. He had been hospitalized since February with what press reported as pnuemonia.

As Carson’s sidekick Ed McMahon was a legend and Star Search, which he hosted from 1983 to 1995, helped launch the careers of many celebrities (including Rosie O’Donnell, Ray Romano, Leanne Rimes, Destiny’s Child and even Sharon Stone who won in the "spokesmodel" category). But the new millenium was not kind to the co-host who suffered a series of contemporary woes.

In 2002 he sued his home insurance company for $20 million, claiming that it botched a simple repair on a broken pipe. McMahon’s suit alleged that the dampness caused toxic mold to spread through his house, making his family sick and killing his dog Muffin. Stachybotrus chartarum also known as black mold was already a hot news item/domestic nightmare when McMahon filed his suit. He settled against several plaintiffs a year later for $7 million.

But his troubles continued. The twice-divorced, thrice-married McMahon slipped and fell in 2007 and then sued Cedar-Sinai Medical Facility and his doctors for failing to diagnosed and properly treat his broken neck.

And it just got worse from there. In October 2008, foreclosure proceedings began on McMahon’s $4.8 million dollar home which had been on the market for two years. At one point Donald Trump allegedly offered to buy McMahon’s house and lease it back to him, but that never happened.  By June of this year, reports Radaronline.com, he house was about to be sold because McMahon–who by then had settled his lawsuit with Cedars-Sinai for an undisclosed sum–was $644,000 behind in mortgage payments.

On KTLA this morning McMahon’s spokesperson explained his deceased client’s financial problems by saying that he was a very generous man, though last year on Larry King Live, McMahon and his wife Pam had a more prosaic explanation:

KING: What did happen, Ed?

E. MCMAHON: It’s a combination, it’s like a perfect storm. Economy problems. Selling the house right now is a tremendous operation to sell a house. We’ve had this house on the market for two years. We’ve shown it, I don’t know how many, 50 organizations or people. Nobody has made an offer. I mean, it’s just a lovely home. I hate to leave it. I want to keep the home. I want this all to work out.

KING: And the payments, you can’t make — what’s the problem?

E. MCMAHON: Well, if you spend more money than you make, you know what happens. And it can happen. You know, a couple of divorces thrown in, a few things like that. And, you know, things happen. You want everything to be perfect, but that combination of the economy, I have a little injury, I have a situation. And it all came together…

KING: But, Pam, the assumption is that the McMahons are multimillionaires and multimillionaires — how much behind are you, $644,000, right? That’s what’s reported?

PAM MCMAHON, ED MCMAHON’S WIFE: Yes.

KING: You can’t pay — if you’re a millionaire, shouldn’t you be able to pay $644,000?

P. MCMAHON: Yes, I’d like to know, I don’t know where those — where are those millions, Ed?

P. MCMAHON: You know, I think it’s a combination — you know, people — I mean, people do assume that you’re — there’s hundreds of millions of dollars. And I think over the years, you know, it’s just a kind of a combination of maybe Ed working so hard and not kind of looking at proper management, which happens a lot. You know, I’m sure maybe Evander Holyfield — who knows — maybe has the same situation…

P. MCMAHON: Yes, I mean, in a perfect world, you don’t want to have to move from your house, let’s put it like that. But Ed hasn’t worked in a year and a half. And so, you know, but things happen in your life, so you have to move forward…

KING: OK. We have an e-mail question from Steve. "Reports say the McMahons have got a $7 million insurance settlement from the toxic mold situation. What happened to that money?"

E. MCMAHON: All right. That money went — they had a lawyer, so we had a lawyer. So we had nine lawyers, they had nine lawyers. And by the time that’s all over, and you rebuild the house from the outside in — we had to go and rebuild the house. We were out — you know, we saw you around at parties — we were out for two and a half years. We had to move out of our house and go to other places while we were waiting. And everything’s going to be over in a month. You know, and it’s six months later, and it doesn’t get done. And then the guy says, well, wait a minute… 

 McMahon and MC Hammer parodied their finicial troubles in an ad that ran during the Super Bowl this year.

Funeral services are pending for the pretty much broke McMahon, the man who once would knock on people’s doors and present them with huge checks for millions.