Ed McMahon’s spokesman, Howard Bragman, says the 85-year-old former "Tonight Show" sidekick has been hospitalized for a number of weeks, and has pneumonia and other unspecified ailments. "Ed's a big, strong, hearty guy and his family and I are hopeful and optimistic about his prognosis," he said.

McMahon sued Cedars-Sinai in July 2007, claiming the hospital released him with a broken neck after a fall in 2006. He also accused the hospital and a doctor of botching two surgeries. In other words he is currently not at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. However Bragman declined to say where McMahon is hospitalized.

McMahon is best known for being Johnny Carson's sidekick on the "Tonight Show" for three decades. He was in the spotlight last year as well because his house was on the verge of foreclosure. Donald Trump offered to buy McMahon's home but let him continue to live in it, but McMahon said he was able to renegotiate the mortgage.

McMahon and Johnny Carson first worked together as announcer and host on the daytime gameshow Who Do You Trust? (1957-1962). McMahon and Carson left that to do The Tonight Show in 1962. For more than 30 years, McMahon introduced the Tonight Show with a drawn-out "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!" His booming voice and constant laughter earned him the nickname the Human Laugh Track. As part of the introductory patter to The Tonight Show, McMahon would state his name out loud, pronouncing it as Ed "Mc MAH yon".

He was also offered the job as host of the successful weekly syndicated series Star Search, which began in 1983 and helped launch the careers of numerous actors, singers, choreographers and comedians. He stayed with the show until it ended in 1995, and in 2003, he made a cameo appearance on the revival of the CBS show, hosted by Arsenio Hall, who was his successor.