Larry King, the radio and television personality, whose breezy and at times 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 on Saturday.
He was 87.
The statement said he had been receiving treatment at the 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.
“Whether he was interviewing a U.S. president, foreign leader, celebrity, scandal-ridden personage or an everyman, Larry liked to ask short direct and uncomplicated questions,” it added.
Paying tribute to King in a statement, CNN President Jeff Zucker said that the “scrappy young man from Brooklyn” had a history-making career due to “his generosity of spirit that drew the world to him.”