LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. — Larry King, a veteran talk show host, died at age 87 on Saturday morning, according to a post on Larry King's official 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 post reads.
King's cause of death was not listed in the post, however King was hospitalized with COVID-19 three weeks ago.
Funeral arrangements and a memorial service will be announced later in coordination with the King family, according to the post.
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.
With his celebrity interviews, political debates and topical discussions, King wasn’t just an enduring on-air personality. He also set himself apart with the curiosity be brought to every interview, whether questioning the assault victim known as the “Central Park Jogger” or billionaire industrialist Ross Perot, who in 1992 rocked the presidential contest by announcing his candidacy on King’s show.
In its early years, “Larry King Live” was based in Washington, D.C., which gave the show an air of gravitas. Likewise King. He was the plainspoken go-between through whom Beltway bigwigs could reach their public, and they did, earning the show prestige as a place where things happened, where news was made.
King conducted an estimated 50,000 on-air interviews. In 1995 he presided over a Middle East peace summit with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He welcomed everyone from the Dalai Lama to Elizabeth Taylor, from Mikhail Gorbachev to Barack Obama, Bill Gates to Lady Gaga.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.