Jay Leno

By Tom Kirvan

When he succeeded Johnny Carson as the host of “The Tonight Show,” comedian Jay Leno took the stage to rousing applause from the audience.

“Let's see how you all feel in 30 years,” Leno remarked after the applause died down.

The quip was in response to Carson’s unprecedented 30-year run as the late-night talk show host, a stretch in which he dominated the TV ratings and showcased such up-and-coming stars as Leno, David Letterman, Jerry Seinfeld, Ellen DeGeneres, Bob Newhart, and a slew of others.

Leno, of course, would prove to be more than a worthy successor to Carson, hosting the show from 1992 to 2009 and then again from 2010-14, before he turned his attention to the “Jay Leno’s Garage” program from 2014-22.

Born April 28, 1950 in New Rochelle, N.Y., Leno attended Emerson College, a private school in Boston that has produced such notables as Henry Winkler and Jennifer Coolidge.

“I was a philosophy major for four years in college,” Leno noted. “I had dreams of opening a little philosophy shop when I got out.”

Jay Leno*

In 1986, Leno began serving as a regular substitute host for Carson. He landed the full-time gig over David Letterman six years later, and eventually led all late-night programming in the TV ratings with such observations as these:

“The economy is so bad in California that parents in Beverly Hills are being forced to raise their own children.”
“People who put hand blowers in washrooms never assume that you might want to wash your face.”
“According to a recent survey, guys say the first thing they notice about a woman are her eyes, and women say the first thing they notice about guys is they are a bunch of liars.”
“If you pay $250 for sneakers, your feet are smarter than you are.”

Leno’s TV success has enabled him to indulge one of his longtime passions: car collecting. His collection includes more than 180 cars and some 160 motorcycles.

Leno has most recently been consumed with caring for his wife of over 45 years, Mavis, amid her dementia diagnosis.

“I’m not a woe-is-me person,” Leno said of his caregiver role. “I’m just lucky that I’m able to take care of her.”

*US mission to the European Union, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons