Tom Magliozzi, one of ‘Car Talk’ brothers, dies at 77

Tom Magliozzi, one half of the dynamic, wisecracking duo that hosted NPR’s “Car Talk” for 35 years, died Monday morning of complications of Alzheimer’s disease, according to NPR and a statement posted on the show’s website. He was 77.

Magliozzi and his brother, Ray, became famous as Click and Clack, dispensing car advice along with their signature cackles on one of public radio’s most beloved programs.

With their distinctive Boston accents, the brothers’ voices are familiar to anyone who has ever heard the show.

The brothers stopped recording live shows in 2012 after 25 years on NPR, but recordings of the show continue to air.

“We can be happy that he lived the life he wanted to live; goofing off a lot, talking to you guys every week, and primarily, laughing his ass off,” Ray Magliozzi said in a statement.

“He just had such a joyous attitude and approach to everything,” longtime “Car Talk” producer Doug Berman told NPR’s “Here & Now” on Monday when the news broke. “You put him anywhere and everybody around him would be having fun. He was the friendliest anti-authority figure you’d ever meet.”

Berman said the brothers helped the public radio network move away from its stiff image. “They created this unique hour where people were entirely themselves, just normal regular people, and that actually broke ground,” Berman said.

According to the show, Tom Magliozzi’s start in radio started out as a fluke in 1977 when Boston’s public radio station, WBUR, booked six car mechanics for an on-air panel. He was the only one to show up.

He returned the next week, bringing his brother, Ray, who was 12 years his junior. Ten years later, the show was picked up by NPR.

In a statement on the show’s website, Berman said the show would continue to air “as long as people want to listen to Car Talk, and as long as our stations make a home for us in their schedules.”

“We spoke to Ray about this, and he feels the finest tribute he can possibly offer his brother is to allow people to continue to enjoy Tom’s great humor and joyful attitude,” Berman wrote.

Tom Magliozzi was born June 28, 1937, in East Cambridge, Mass. He graduated with a degree in chemical engineering from MIT.

In a speech to the 1999 graduates at his alma mater, Tom Magliozzi, appearing with his brother, spoke about his “defining moment,” when he was nearly killed in an accident with a tractor-trailer while driving to work.

“I said to myself, if I had in fact bought the farm out there on Route 128, how ticked off would I be that I spent all my life ... going to this job, living a life of quiet desperation,” Tom Magliozzi recounted. “I quit my job. I became a bum. I spent two years sitting in Harvard Square drinking coffee. I invented the concept of the do-it-yourself auto repair shop and met my lovely wife.”

“Most people would have just bought a bigger car,” Ray Magliozzi quipped.

Tom Magliozzi urged the new graduates to have fun as they moved forward. “You have spent the last four, five or six years of your life working on the wrong direction,” he said. “You are sliding down the happiness curve. You must stop this from happening and you must go in the other direction.”

In addition to his brother, Ray, Tom Magliozzi’s survivors include his children, Lydia Icke, Alex and Anna Magliozzi; five grandchildren; and his close companion of recent years, Sylvia Soderberg.

A complete obituary will follow at latimes.com/obits.

Twitter: @cmaiduc