Legendary Broadcaster Larry King Dies at Age 87

RADIO ONLINE | Saturday, January 23, 2021 | 3:44pm CT

Larry King

Legendary broadcaster Larry King whose interviews with world leaders, movie stars, and ordinary Joes helped define American conversation for a half-century, died Saturday. He was 87. King died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Ora Media, the studio and network he co-founded, tweeted. His son Chance King confirmed the death to CNN. No cause of death was given, but CNN had earlier reported King had been hospitalized with COVID-19. 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.

Born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in 1933, King conducted an estimated 50,000 on-air interviews, welcoming everyone from the Dalai Lama to Elizabeth Taylor, from Mikhail Gorbachev to Barack Obama, Bill Gates to Lady Gaga. Especially after he relocated from DC to Los Angeles, his shows were frequently in the thick of breaking celebrity news. King was also known for his many marriages: He was married eight times, to seven different women. He often boasted of never over-preparing for an interview, and his relaxed style made him a favorite of guests and readily relatable to his audience. "I don't pretend to know it all," he said in a 1995 AP interview.

In a career that spanned half a century, King started in radio hosting "The Larry King Show," a late-night radio talk program on the Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS) from 1978-94, and hosted "Larry King Live" on CNN for 25 years before ending in 2010. He was the author of a number of bestselling books, wrote a longtime weekly column for USA Today, made more than 20 cameo appearances in movies and launched an hour-long pop culture podcast in 2020.

King dreamed of becoming a radio broadcaster while growing up, and in 1957 the 23-year-old King headed to Miami to break into radio. At first, despite his baritone voice, the only job he could find was sweeping floors at a small station, WAHR-AM, with the promise of a future on-air job when someone left. When the morning talent quit some two weeks later, the general manager put in AM drive and asked him to change his last name from Zeiger to King.

King moved to WKAT in 1958 and began hosting a four-hour radio show on location at Pumpernik's, a popular Miami restaurant, where he talked with celebrities such as Lenny Bruce, Bobby Darin and Ella Fitzgerald. In 1962, King was hired by WIOD/Miami and began doing an interview show from the houseboat that had been used on the TV private-detective series "Surfside 6."

He also became the color announcer for the Miami Dolphins broadcasts on WIOD and began writing local newspaper columns. While at MBS, he launched on CNN in June, 1985 with then New York Governor Mario Cuomo as the first guest. "Larry King Live" became CNN's highest-rated show.