Larry King, the longtime talk show host whose iconic interviews and signature style helped make him become one of the biggest names in broadcasting, died Saturday morning in California at the age of 87.
Mr. King’s death was confirmed in a statement issued by Ora Media, the parent company of Ora TV, a production studio he started in 2012 after spending a quarter-century hosting “Larry King Live” on CNN.
Ora said Mr. King died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles but did not provide a cause of death. Three weeks earlier, CNN reported that he was hospitalized there with the novel coronavirus.
Mr. King spent most of his life in broadcasting, including more than 60 years in radio and TV. CNN aired “Larry King Live” nightly from 1985 to 2010, and he remained active in the decade that followed.
“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,” Ora said in the statement it shared.
“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.”
Most recently, Mr. King spent the last several years hosting talk shows produced by Ora, including “Larry King Now” and “Politicking with Larry King,” where he interviewed guests as recently as 2020.
