Legendary television broadcaster Larry King has died aged 87 in Los Angeles.
A production company he co-founded, Ora Media, did not state a cause of death on Saturday but media reports said King had been battling COVID-19 for weeks and had suffered several health problems in recent years, including a near-fatal stroke in 2019 and diabetes.
He had been hospitalised at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for more than a week, CNN said on Saturday.
King’s radio and television broadcasting career spanned more than 60 years.
Millions of people watched him interview world leaders, entertainers and other celebrities on CNN’s Larry King Live, which ran from 1985 to 2010.
King conducted an estimated 50,000 on-air interviews. Those included varied cultural figures, world leaders, and entertainers including actress Elizabeth Taylor, the final leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, former President Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama, software magnate Bill Gates, and singer Lady Gaga, among others.
In 1995, King conducted a joint interview with Palestinian Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, in what was hailed as a primetime peace summit.
He was also notorious for landing interviews few could get, including with singer Frank Sinatra and actor Marlon Brando.
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