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"Tonight" Legend Jack Paar Passes
by Marcus Errico
Jan 27, 2004, 12:00 PM PT

Late-night icon Jack Paar, the onetime Tonight Show host who blazed the way for Carson, Letterman and Leno before quitting at the top of his game, died Tuesday at age 85.

His family confirmed the death, saying Paar succumbed to a "long illness" and passed away at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut, surrounded by his daughter and wife.

Paar's health had been declining in recent years. He spent six days in a Greenwich hospital last year after suffering a stroke. In 1997, Paar was hospitalized after undergoing triple heart bypass surgery, complicated by an embolism discovered during the operation.

The legendary entertainer, who introduced the sofa-and-desk format to late-night television, hosted NBC's Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962, serving as the bridge between original host Steve Allen and Johnny Carson.

Outwardly humble, Paar once told listeners, "It's almost impossible to dislike me because I do nothing." But a quick look at his résumé proves him wrong.

Born in 1918 in Canton, Ohio, Paar got his start in local radio. After a stint in the army entertaining troops with his parodies of WWII brass, Paar scored a summer-replacement gig in 1947 on the Jack Benny radio show.

For the next 10 years, he bounced between hosting duties on quiz and variety shows like Up to Paar and The Morning Show and the occasional stint as an actor. In 1951, Paar had a bit part as the boyfriend of young ingénue Marilyn Monroe in Love Nest.

Paar was brought in to rescue the ailing Tonight Show in 1957, six months after the departure of original host Steve Allen. He wasted no time bringing the show up to, well, par, changing the format from variety to talk and bringing a who's-who guest list to his sofa, including Richard Nixon and Judy Garland and newcomers like Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Bob Newhart and the Smothers Brothers..

Paar helped pioneer the current format of late-night shows, inspiring the likes of Johnny Carson, David Letterman and Jay Leno and spawning countless imitators. The Paar-fronted show soon became so wildly popular that its name was changed to The Jack Paar Tonight Show, but success was not without its hitches.

A straight shooter (and edgy for his era) whose trademark phrase was "I kid you not," Paar was a controversy magnet, drawing ire for taking the show on the road and broadcasting from Cuba and the Great Wall in China. Famous for his long-running feuds with newspaper columnists and rivals like Ed Sullivan, Paar once stormed off mid-show after the network censored a joke using the term "water closet." Paar returned after a four-week absence, opening with, "As I was saying before being interrupted..."

He walked away from Tonight in 1962, leaving at the height of popularity and ceding the show to youngster Carson. Paar produced a Friday-night variety show the following season before leaving network TV in 1965 to run a Maine TV station.

He briefly returned to the airwaves in early 1975 as host of the monthly ABC Wide World of Entertainment, which ran against Carson. The experiment lasted just a few months before Paar quit showbiz for good and virtually disappeared, suffering no comebacks and rarely making public appearances. His last came as the guest of honor at a Museum of Radio and Television gala in 1997.

He is survived by his wife of six decades, Miriam, and daughter Randy.