By the time we first encountered Ed McMahon as the host of Star Search and the bearer of oversized checks from Publishers Clearing House, he already had white hair. (We didn’t stay up late enough back then to hear him belt out “Heeeere’s Johnny!” on The Tonight Show.) We pulled this random photo above, because anytime we hear that someone has died, we wonder what they looked like when they were younger. He’s in his forties in the image above. And rather dashing.

Read his New York Times obit here.