Johnny carson bio biography lawyer

Celebrities

Lawyer writes tell-all book about his life with late-night TV king Johnny Carson

By Martha Neil

Henry Bushkin was a junior attorney at an entertainment law firm when he first met Johnny Carson, far from an obvious choice of counsel for a man who could afford pretty much whatever he wanted.

But the NBC late-night entertainment show host took a shine to the 27-year-old, and wound up using him as his personal lawyer, confidant, wingman and tennis partner for nearly two decades, from 1970 to 1988.

Then, encouraged by his fourth wife, who disliked Bushkin, Carson fired Bushkin over a business matter, as the attorney tells the story. After Carson died in 2005, Bushkin began writing a book about his onetime client and mentor that seemingly pulls no punches.

“The question that people most frequently ask me is what was Johnny really like.

They are usually happy to hear the first part of my answer: he was endlessly witty and enormously fun to be around,”