Larry King, the suspenders-sporting everyman whose broadcast interviews with world leaders, movie stars and ordinary Joes helped define US conversation for a half-century, died yesterday. He was 87.
King died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Ora Media, the studio and network he cofounded, wrote on Twitter.
No cause of death was given, but CNN had earlier reported he was hospitalized with COVID-19.
Photo: AFP
A longtime nationally syndicated radio host, from 1985 through 2010 he was a nightly fixture on CNN, where he won many honors, including two Peabody Awards.
With his celebrity interviews, political debates and topical discussions, King was not just an enduring on-air personality. He also set himself apart with the curiosity he brought to every interview, whether questioning the assault victim known as the “Central Park Jogger” or billionaire industrialist Ross Perot, who in 1992 rocked the presidential contest by announcing his candidacy on King’s show.
In its early years, Larry King Live was based in Washington, which gave the show an air of gravitas.
King conducted an estimated 50,000 on-air interviews.
In 1995, he presided over a Middle East peace summit with then-Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat, the late King Hussein of Jordan and then-Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
He welcomed everyone from the Dalai Lama to Elizabeth Taylor, from Mikhail Gorbachev to Lady Gaga.
King boasted of never over-preparing for an interview. His non-confrontational style relaxed his guests and made him readily relatable to his audience.
“I don’t pretend to know it all,” he said in a 1995 Associated Press interview. “Not: ‘What about Geneva or Cuba?’ I ask: ‘Mr President, what don’t you like about this job?’ Or: ‘What’s the biggest mistake you made?’ That’s fascinating.”
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