Johnny Carson

Early life and career

John William Carson was born on October 23, 1925, in Corning, Iowa, to Ruth Elizabeth Carson (née Hook; 1901–1985) and Homer Lloyd "Kit" Carson (1899–1983), a power company manager. Carson was the second of three children. He had an older sister, and a younger brother, Richard "Dick" Carson (1929–2021).

Growing up initially in Iowa, Carson lived in the towns of Avoca, Clarinda, and Red Oak before moving to Norfolk, Nebraska, at age eight. There, Carson began developing his talent for entertaining. At age 12, he found a book on magic at a friend's house and purchased a mail-order magician's kit. After purchasing the kit, Carson practiced his entertainment skills on family members with card tricks. During this period, he would follow his family members around, saying, "Pick a card, any card." Carson's mother made him a cape, and his first performance was in front of the local Kiwanis Club. He debuted as "The Great Carsoni" at age 14 and was paid $3 a show.

After graduating from high school, Carson hitchhiked to Hollywood, Los Angeles. There, he was arrested and fined $50 for impersonating a midshipman, a story often regarded as apocryphal.

Television work as character

Carson played himself in the 1964 film Looking for Love. He was also a surprise guest on the 1970s Bob Hope television special Joys! (a parody of the hit movie Jaws). Guests on the broadcast included Groucho Marx, George Burns, Telly Savalas, Milton Berle, Red Buttons, Don Adams, Steve Allen, and Harry Ritz, The special was written and produced by Hal Kanter.

In 1979, Carson invested $500,000 (equivalent to $2,218,019 in 2025) in the DeLorean Motor Company. Guest Red Skelton kidded Carson on the air about DeLorean and the widely reported allegations of cocaine trafficking: "That car of yours, the DeLorean? Is that a hopped-up car?"

Carson was head of a group of investors who purchased and operated two television stations. The first was KVVU-TV in Henderson, Nevada, an independent station serving Las Vegas, acquired by the Carson group in 1979. Shortly after buying the station, KVVU was rumored to be acquiring an NBC affiliation because long-time affiliate KORK-TV was in the process of being replaced by KVBC and KSNV, but it never happened.

Carson's second station, independent KNAT-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was purchased in 1982. Unlike the Las Vegas operation, KNAT faced stiffer competition for top-quality, syndicated programming. Carson sold both of his stations in 1985 and 1986, with KVVU-TV (FOX 5) going to the Meredith Corporation and KNAT being sold to Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Carson founded Carson Productions in 1980. The company primarily produced The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1980 to 1992 and Late Night with David Letterman from 1982 to 1993, along with other TV shows, including Teachers Only from 1982 to 1983, Partners in Crime from 1984 to 1985, Amen from 1986 to 1991 and TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes (co-produced with Dick Clark Productions) from 1984 to 1993. It produced the films The Big Chill (1983) and Desert Bloom (1986).

Carson's other business ventures included the successful Johnny Carson Apparel, Inc.—his turtlenecks became a fashion trend—and a failed restaurant franchise.

Despite his on-camera demeanor, Carson was introverted off-camera. He avoided most parties and was called "the most private public man who ever lived." Dick Cavett recalled, "I felt sorry for Johnny in that he was so socially uncomfortable. I've hardly ever met anybody who had as hard a time as he did."

George Axelrod once said of Carson, "Socially, he doesn't exist. The reason is that there are no television cameras in living rooms. If human beings had little red lights in the middle of their foreheads, Carson would be the greatest conversationalist on Earth." Musician John Oates later similarly recalled that "he was very subdued. But the moment the countdown started—'three, two, one'—and the lights came on the camera, he was Johnny Carson. He was like, boom. It was that pencil-tapping thing with the coffee mug. And then the moment they went to a commercial, it was like he just stopped."

He normally refused to discuss politics, social controversies, his childhood, and his private life with interviewers, and offered a list of pre-written answers to inquiring journalists, suggesting that they append their own questions to them. Among the answers were "Yes, I did," "Not a bit of truth in that rumor," and "No, kumquats."

In 1981, Carson created the John W. Carson Foundation, dedicated to supporting children, education, and health services. In August 2010, his charitable foundation reported receiving $156 million (equivalent to $257,164,764 in 2025) from a personal trust established by the entertainer years before his 2005 death, thus becoming by far the largest Hollywood charity. As of 2022, the foundation continues to support charitable causes.

In November 2004, Carson announced a $5.3 million gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation to support the Hixson–Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts Department of Theater Arts, which created the Johnny Carson School of Theater and Film. Another $5 million donation was announced by the estate of Carson to the University of Nebraska following his death, while a $1 million donation was announced on November 4, 2011, creating the Johnny Carson Opportunity Scholarship Fund. The foundation made another $5 million donation to the university on October 22, 2021, to augment the Opportunity Scholarship Fund.

Carson also donated to causes in his adopted hometown of Norfolk, including the Carson Cancer Center at Faith Regional Health Services, the Elkhorn Valley Museum, and the Johnny Carson Theater at Norfolk Senior High School. Carson also donated to the Northeast Community College Lifelong Learning Center in honor of his favorite teacher, Miss Fay Gordon. Miss Gordon had appeared on his show a number of times. His last known visit to Norfolk was to throw the 100th-birthday party for Miss Gordon, which Carson had promised to do several years earlier.

Political views and activism

Carson opposed the Vietnam War and capital punishment, favored racial equality, and was against criminalizing extramarital sex and pornography. He avoided explicitly mentioning his views on The Tonight Show, saying he "hates to be pinned down" as that would "hurt me as an entertainer, which is what I am". As he explained in 1970, "In my living room I would argue for liberalization of abortion laws, divorce laws, and there are times when I would like to express a view on the air. I would love to have taken on Billy Graham. But I'm on TV five nights a week; I have nothing to gain by it and everything to lose." He also seldom invited political figures onto the Tonight Show because he "didn't want it to become a political forum" and did not want the show used, by himself or others, to influence the opinions of the viewers.

In his book, Carson's former lawyer Henry Bushkin stated, he "was by instinct and upbringing definitely Republican, but of an Eisenhower sort that we don't see much of anymore... Overall, you'd have to say he was anti-big: anti-big government, anti-big money, anti-big bullies, anti-big blowhards." Carson served as MC for Ronald Reagan's inaugural gala in 1981 at the request of Frank Sinatra.

Carson often made jokes at the expense of other celebrities. In 1980, Carson backed out of a deal to acquire the Aladdin Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, and a competing group led by Wayne Newton bought the property. According to lawyer Henry Bushkin, Carson became annoyed that he was portrayed in the media as having "lost" the deal and reacted by telling jokes on his show about Newton. This led to a feud between Carson and Newton. Years later, Newton appeared on Larry King Live, declaring that "Johnny Carson is a mean-spirited human being. And there are people that he has hurt that people will never know about. And for some reason at some point, he decided to turn that kind of negative attention toward me. And I refused to have it." Newton has often told of confronting Carson; ultimately, Newton barged into Carson's office at the NBC studios and threatened to beat him up unless he stopped making such jokes.

On February 27, 1982, Carson was arrested for drunk driving on La Cienega Boulevard, near Beverly Hills; he was released on his own recognizance. Carson pleaded no contest to the charges and, in October 1982, received a sentence of three years probation, was fined $603, and was required to attend a driver's education alcohol program. Carson's driving privilege was restricted to driving only to and from work and alcohol education classes for a period of 90 days.

Perry Mason actor Raymond Burr became angry over Carson's continuing jokes about his weight, and he appeared on The Tonight Show only twice, in 1968 and 1976.

On July 2, 1969, Carson launched an on-air attack on The New York Times after his nightly monologue, assailing the newspaper for an article saying that he was the highest-paid performer on television, earning $75,000 a week, equivalent to $658,462 in 2025. He denied that was so, while declining to reveal his compensation in a subsequent interview with the newspaper, and called the article "damned unfair". The Times published a follow-up article saying that its initial reporter "erred", and that $75,000 a week was unlikely.

Carson reportedly loathed what he perceived as disloyalty, and he was furious when former frequent Tonight Show guest hosts John Davidson and Joan Rivers began hosting their own talk shows. Rivers' show on the Fox Network directly competed with Carson during the 1986–1987 season before being canceled. On June 24, 2009, following Ed McMahon's death, Rivers spoke highly of McMahon on Larry King Live, but said that after she got her own show, Carson refused to ever speak to her again, despite her efforts to apologize.

In December 1973, Carson joked on Tonight about an alleged shortage of toilet paper. Viewers believed the story and panic buying and hoarding ensued across the United States as consumers emptied stores, causing a real shortage that lasted for weeks. Stores and toilet paper manufacturers had to ration supplies until the panic ended. Carson apologized in January 1974 for the incident, which became what The New York Times called a "classic study" of how rumors spread. Carson called references in the article to him "very unfair".

Carson successfully sued a manufacturer of portable toilets that wanted to call its product "Here's Johnny".

Carson performed a parody of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Rogers noted, "I've told Johnny that I like humor as much as anybody. But what concerns me is the takeoffs that make me seem so wimpy! I hope it doesn't communicate that Mr. Rogers is just somebody to be made fun of. Only people who take the time to see our work can begin to understand the depth of it." Carson later apologized to Rogers for making fun of him.