How Ed McMahon's financial ups and downs predicted a nation's

On Tuesday, TV personality Ed McMahon died at 86 at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Most famous for his 30-year run as Johnny Carson's couchwarmer on NBC's Tonight Show, McMahon's affably goofy presence -- providing a human laugh track as he chortled heartily at the boss's wry (and often very lame) jokes -- set the tone for the program. Later, McMahon became known as the public face of the direct-mail advertiser American Family Publishers sweepstakes.

But in the final year of his life, his celebrity role took on a darker, more complex, more bittersweet tint, when the foreclosure of his Beverly Hills mansion made him the first celebrity poster child for the subprime-mortgage bust.