Larry King, the radio and television personality whose breezy and conversational interviews with celebrities and world leaders made him a broadcasting icon for nearly half a century, has died, his TV production company Ora Media said in a statement Saturday.
He was 87.
— Larry King (@kingsthings) January 23, 2021
The statement said he had been receiving treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
It did not specify the cause of death, but King was recently hospitalized with Covid-19 and had endured health problems for many years, including a near-fatal stroke in 2019 and diabetes.
Over a nearly 60-year career that spanned radio, cable television and the internet, the Brooklyn, New York, native estimated that he conducted more than 50,000 interviews — not one of which he prepared for in advance.
But that off-the-cuff style, along with his raspy baritone delivery and trademark suspenders, made “Larry King Live” a popular prime-time draw on CNN from 1985 through 2010.
It was a run that helped build the cable news network into a major presence in American living rooms.
Paying tribute to King in a statement, CNN President Jeff Zucker said the “scrappy young man from Brooklyn had a history-making career” due to “his generosity of spirit that drew the world to him.”
CNN founder Ted Turner said in a tweet that the “world has lost a true broadcasting legend.”❐
