Larry King, decades-long fixture of U.S. TV interviews, dead at 87 (updated)
23/01/2021 13:25
(Adds statement from King company, background)
WASHINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Larry King, who quizzed
thousands of world leaders, politicians and entertainers for CNN
and other news outlets in a career spanning more than six
decades, has died aged 87, his media company said in a statement
on Saturday.
King had been hospitalized in Los Angeles with a COVID-19
infection, according to several media reports. He died at
Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Ora Media, a television production
company founded by King, said in a post on Twitter.
"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," it said.
Millions watched King interview world leaders, entertainers
and other celebrities on CNN's "Larry King Live", which ran from
1985 to 2010. Hunched over his desk in rolled-up shirt sleeves
and owlish glasses, he made his show one of the network's prime
attractions with a mix of interviews, political discussions,
current event debates and phone calls from viewers.
Even in his heyday, critics accused King of doing little
pre-interview research and tossing softball questions to guests
who were free to give unchallenged, self-promoting answers. He
responded by conceding he did not do much research so that he
could learn along with his viewers. Besides, King said, he never
wanted to be perceived as a journalist.
"My duty, as I see it, is I'm a conduit," King told the
Hartford Courant in 2007. "“I ask the best questions I can. I
listen to the answers. I try to follow up. And hopefully the
audience makes a conclusion. I'm not there to make a conclusion.
I'm not a soapbox talk-show host... So what I try to do is
present someone in the best light."
PRESIDENTS AND PRIME MINISTERS
King's guests included U.S. presidents dating back to Gerald
Ford, international leaders such as PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat,
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, British Prime Minister
Tony Blair, and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, and
entertainers ranging from Bob Hope to Snoop Dogg.
King never hid his old-fashioned proclivities and liked to
reminisce about performers such as Frank Sinatra and Arthur
Godfrey. In 2006 he admitted to a guest that he had never
searched the internet, saying: "“What do you do - punch little
buttons and things?"
But by 2012 King was on the internet himself with his "Larry
King Now" show on Ora TV, and later Hulu's streaming service. He
also was a regular presence on Twitter, promoting his interviews
and tossing out random thoughts - "I have no desire to eat an
artichoke," "My favorite flavor of Jell-O is lime" and "I love
to say 'sacre bleu!'" - in what was essentially an online
version of the column he had once written for USA Today.
King was an established radio talk-show host when he made
his first television broadcast for CNN from Washington on June
3, 1985, five years after Ted Turner started the network.
“"Larry King Live" would become one of CNN's highest rated
shows. He left CNN amid falling ratings in 2010 after 25 years
with the news network, but stayed busy with his Ora TV show.
"I've known a lot of people who were experts in six or 12
things but Larry seems to be an expert in everything," Don
Hewitt, creator of "60 Minutes", told the Hollywood Reporter.
"He's also never confrontational, which is majorly important. In
an age when so many people are miserable, he seems to be one of
the happy ones."
MIAMI RADIO BEGINNINGS
King was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger on Nov. 19, 1933, in
the New York City borough of Brooklyn. He said at age 5 he knew
he wanted to be on the radio and in 1957 he moved to Miami,
which he had been told had a burgeoning radio market.
King started doing odd jobs at a Miami station and one day
was asked to fill in for an announcer who walked off the job.
Before he went on the air, the station manager urged him to
change his last name to King because it was easier to pronounce
and less ethnic than Zeiger.
King became a fixture in Miami but as his reputation grew,
so did his troubles.
In 1971 he was arrested on a grand larceny complaint filed
by Miami financier Lou Wolfson, who had been in trouble with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. Wolfson allegedly paid King
in hopes of gaining influence on the administration of then-U.S.
President Richard Nixon.
The charge against King was dropped because the statute of
limitations had expired, but the scandal knocked him off the air
for some three years. He did public relations work for a
Louisiana racetrack until station WIOD in Miami hired him.
King rebounded and the Mutual radio network gave him a
nationwide audience in 1978. He relocated to Washington, a move
that led to the CNN job.
He suffered a heart attack and had bypass surgery in 1987,
prompting him to start the Larry King Cardiac Foundation a year
later. He had surgery in 2007 to clear a blocked artery, was
treated for prostate cancer in 2010 and said in 2017 that he had
been treated for lung cancer.
King was married eight times to seven women, most recently
to singer Shawn Southwick, who was 26 years younger. He had five
children, two of whom died in 2020.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Scott Malone and Bill Trott;
Editing by Dave Gregorio, Rosalba O'Brien and Alex Richardson)
((sheavey@thomsonreuters.com; +1 202 843 6600;))