Monitoring Desk
LOS ANGELES: Former CNN talk show host Larry King has died following a recent battle with COVID-19. His company, Ora Media, made the announcement on his Twitter account.
“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 Center in Los Angeles.”
The 87-year-old King had undergone treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported King had moved out of the intensive care unit.
The Peabody Award-winning broadcaster was among America’s most prominent interviewers of celebrities, presidents and other newsmakers during a half-century career that included 25 years with a nightly show on CNN.
“Larry King Live” ran in prime time from 1985 to 2010. He had medical issues in recent decades, including heart attacks and diagnoses of diabetes and lung cancer.
The statement announcing his death said funeral arrangements would be announced at a later date. It also stated the King family was requesting privacy at this time.
Last year, King lost two of his five children within weeks of each other. Son Andy King died of a heart attack at 65 in August, and daughter Chaia King died from lung cancer at 51 in July, Larry King said then in a statement.
For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry’s many thousands of interviews, awards, 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 guest 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, and uncomplicated questions. He believed concise questions usually provided the best answers, and he was not wrong in that belief.
Larry’s interviews from his 25-year run on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” 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.
