After fighting coronavirus Larry King has died. The Brooklyn-bred man, who became cable TV’s most well known talk show host died on Saturday.
Kings production company announced his death in a statement.
“With profound sadness, Ora Media announces the death of our co-founder, host and friend Larry King, who passed away this morning at age 87 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles”
“For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry’s made thousands of interviews, awards and and global acclaim stand as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster.”
“Additionally, while it was his name appearing in the shows’ titles, Larry always viewed his interview subjects as the true stars of his programs, and himself as merely an unbiased conduit between the guests and audience.”
“Whether he was interviewing a U.S. president, foreign leader, celebrity, scandal-ridden personage or an everyman, Larry liked to ask short, direct, uncomplicated questions.”
“He believed concise questions usually provided the best answers, and he was not wrong in that belief…”
“Ora Media sends our condolences to his surviving children Larry, Jr, Chance, Cannon and the entire King family.”
“Funeral services and a memorial service will be announced later in co-ordination with the King family, who ask for privacy at this time.”
King, who had fought cancer multiple times and survived also suffered from type -two diabetes and in 1987 he endured a heart attack that required quintuple-bypass surgery. Although he had contracted coronavirus earlier this year, it was not reported as a cause of death.
Larry King was born Lawrence H. Zeiger in 1933. As a child he dreamed of working in broadcast. ‘When I was 5 years old I would lie in bed, look at the radio, and I wanted to be on the radio.’ he said. ‘I don’t know why I was magically attuned to it.’
King began his career as a DJ and sportscaster in Miami and it’s where he found his name as well. After a station manager told him that his given surname, Zeiger was “too ethnic” he chose King from a liquor ad in a newspaper.
In the late 1970’s King had an overnight talk show on the Mutual Broadcasting System until 1985 when Ted Turner hired him for his new network CNN.
King ended up staying for 25 years. He famously didn’t do a lot of preparations for interviews.
‘The less I know, the better,‘ he said. ‘Now that sounds strange to people. Like, if you wrote a book before I interviewed you, because I would then know too much about the book and I’m in the same boat as the audience. They haven’t read the book.’
CNN ended up cancelling King’s show. However he then took his talk show to streaming video – on Ora TV, Hulu and most controversially, RT America the Russian network – and kept on working. He hosted his weekly talk show “Polticking with Larry King” up until his death.