Longtime journalist and radio host Larry King has died. He was 87.
An octogenarian journalist King passed away due to COVID-19 on Saturday morning. He was hospitalized on January 2 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
A son of Russian immigrant Larry King was just 11-year-old when his father died of heart problems in 1944.
“For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry’s many thousands of interviews, awards, and global acclaim stands as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster.
“Larry’s interviews from his 25-year run on CNN’s ‘Larry King Love,’ and his Ora Media programs ‘Larry King Now,’ and ‘Politicking with Larry King’ are consistently referenced by media outlets around the world and remain part of the historical record of the late 20th and early 21st centuries,” the statement of Ora Media said.
His death comes 5 months after the deaths of two of his children in the summer of 2020: son Andy and daughter Chaia, who died within 23 days apart of each other.
Andy died suddenly of a heart attack on July 28. He was 65. Chaia died on Aug. 20, shortly after being diagnosed with lung cancer. She was 51.
King shared daughter Chaia with his ex-wife Alene Akins.He adopted Andy, Akins’ son, from a previous relationship, after the two got married for the first time in 1961.
Known for his gentle, unassuming interviewing technique, his string of marriages and his signature colorful suspenders, King was a nighttime cultural institution for more than two decades thanks to his award-winning CNN talk show, Larry King Live.
“Larry King defined the art of the television interview,” CNN said in a statement at the time. “His candor, curiosity and compassion are legendary, and his ability to interview people from all walks of life — world leaders, celebrities and everyday people — have made him an icon.”
King was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger on Nov. 19, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York. He changed his birth name when he began his broadcast career in Miami in the late 1950s. In 1985, he launched the cable TV show Larry King Live, which became CNN’s tent-pole program.
For 25 years, King interviewed an expansive slate of recognizable names from around the world, such as celebrities, politicians and athletes.
In 2012, King launched the sit-down talk show Larry King Now on Ora TV. It ran for eight seasons until February 2020.
Throughout his time working in media, King received a number of awards for his journalistic accomplishments, including two Peabody Awards and inductions into the National Radio Hall of Fame and Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Additionally, King was the author of several books.
In 1987, King suffered a heart attack and underwent a quintuple bypass. Naturally, he turned it into a talking point with famous guests who’d also survived heart disease.
Over the course of his life, the New York native was married eight times, two of those times to the same woman: Freda Miller (1952-53), Annette Kaye (1961), Alene Akins (1961-63), Mickey Sutphin (1964-67), Alene Akins (again from 1968-71), Sharon Lepore (1976-83), Julie Alexander (1989-92) and Shawn Southwick King (1997-present).
The legendary journalist is survived by his estranged wife and three of his five children: Chance, Cannon and son Larry King Jr., 59, with Kaye.
(With the credit inputs of Aurelie Corinthios and Natalie Stone)
