LOS ANGELES (NewsNation Now) — Legendary television host Larry King died Saturday morning in Los Angeles, according to King’s media company. He was 87.
King’s official Twitter account announced the passing at 7:45 a.m. ET.
“With profound sadness, Ora Media announces the death of our co-founder, host, and friend Larry King, who passed away this morning at 87.”
No cause of death was given. Earlier this month, King was hospitalized after testing positive for coronavirus.
A longtime nationally syndicated radio host, from 1985 through 2010 King 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 he 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.
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.
Especially after he relocated to Los Angeles, his shows were frequently in the thick of breaking celebrity news, including Paris Hilton talking about her stint in jail in 2007 and Michael Jackson’s friends and family members talking about his death in 2009.
King boasted of never over-preparing for an interview. His non-confrontational style relaxed his guests and made him readily relatable to his audience. King was also known for getting guests who were notoriously elusive.
“I don’t pretend to know it all,” he said in a 1995 Associated Press interview. “Not, `What about Geneva or Cuba?′ I ask, `Mr. President, what don’t you like about this job?′ Or `What’s the biggest mistake you made?′ That’s fascinating.”
King was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in 1933, a son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who ran a bar and grill in Brooklyn. But after his father’s death when he was a boy, he faced a troubled, sometimes destitute youth.
A fan of such radio stars as Arthur Godfrey and comedians Bob & Ray, King on reaching adulthood set his sights on a broadcasting career. With word that Miami was a good place to break in, he headed south in 1957 and landed a job sweeping floors at a tiny AM station. When a deejay abruptly quit, King was put on the air — and was handed his new surname by the station manager, who thought Zeiger “too Jewish.”
A year later he moved to a larger station, where his duties were expanded from the usual patter to serving as host of a daily interview show that aired from a local restaurant. He quickly proved equally adept at talking to the waitresses, and the celebrities who began dropping by.
By the early 1960s King had gone to yet a larger Miami station, scored a newspaper column and become a local celebrity himself.
At the same time, he fell victim to living large.
FILE – In this July 18, 1992 file photo, Larry King, left, talks with Texas billionaire Ross Perot during a commercial break in the live broadcast of CNN’s ‘Larry King Live’ in New York. King, who interviewed presidents, movie stars and ordinary Joes during a half-century in broadcasting, has died at age 87. Ora Media, the studio and network he co-founded, tweeted that King died Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021 morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File) 
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 25: Larry King poses for portrait as the Friars Club and Crescent Hotel honor him for his 86th birthday at Crescent Hotel on November 25, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images) 
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – AUGUST 01: Larry king attends The Paley Center For Media Presents: A Special Evening With Dionne Warwick: Then Came You at The Paley Center for Media on August 1, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images) 
LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 13: TV/radio host Larry King attends a private luncheon hosted by The National Radio Hall of Fame and Larry King at Dodger Stadium on September 13, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images) 
Robert Shapiro (R) who represented O.J. Simpson during the recent murder trial talks with Larry King (L) on CNN’s Larry King Live in Hollywood 05 October. Shapiro talked about the trial, the other Simpson defense attorneys and about O.J. Simpson. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read Pool/Danny FELD/AFP via Getty Images) 
President Clinton (C) and Vice President Gore (R) talk to television talk show host Larry King (L) on CNN’s Larry King Live in the White House library late 05 June. King who is celebrating the 10th anniversary of his talk show this week, questioned Clinton and Gore on the 1996 presidential campaign, Bosnia and other current events. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read /AFP via Getty Images) 
Television host Larry King and his wife actress Shawn Southwick King attend the Friars Club Entertainment Icon Award ceremony at the Ziegfeld Ballroom on November 12, 2018, in New York City. – Larry King has filed for divorce from his wife Shawn Southwick King after nearly 22 years of marriage. (Photo by KENA BETANCUR / AFP) / ALTERNATIVE CROP (Photo credit should read KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images) 
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – JUNE 12: Television/radio personality Larry King speaks onstage during a Q&A following The Paley Center For Media’s presentation of ‘OJ: The Trial Of The Century Twenty Years Later’ at The Paley Center for Media on June 12, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images) 
372672 01: Talk show host Larry King (L) and singer Tony Bennett applaud as they join 100 children with diabetes to urge Congress to increase funding for diabetes research on the Capitol Hill in Washington DC June 22, 1999. (Photo by Alex Wong) 
FILE – This April 1, 2013 file photo shows talk show host Larry King attends a season-opening baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants in Los Angeles. King, who interviewed presidents, movie stars and ordinary Joes during a half-century in broadcasting, has died at age 87. Ora Media, the studio and network he co-founded, tweeted that King died Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021 morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) 
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore (C) and wife Tipper Gore (R) chat during a break in their interview with talk show host Larry King (L) at CNN in Washington, DC 28 September, 2000. Gore is in Washington for a few days before returning to the campaign trail this weekend. AFP PHOTO/Mario TAMA (Photo credit should read MARIO TAMA/AFP via Getty Images) 
US First Lady and New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (L) is interviewed by CNN’s Larry King (R) for the “Larry King Live” television program, 11 December 2000, at the White House in Washington, DC. The program is scheduled to air on CNN at 9pm EST 11 December. (FILM) POOL/AFP PHOTO/ Chris KLEPONIS (Photo credit should read CHRIS KLEPONIS/AFP via Getty Images) 
FILE – In this Nov. 20, 2017, file photo, Larry King attends the 45th International Emmy Awards at the New York Hilton, in New York. Former CNN talk show host King has been hospitalized with COVID-19 for more than a week, the news channel reported Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021. CNN reported the 87-year-old King contracted the coronavirus and was undergoing treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File) 
Moderator Larry King (L) speaks with Republican presidential hopefuls John McCain (C), Alan Keyes (2nd-R) and George W. Bush at Seawell’s Banquet Facility 15 February, 2000 in Columbia, South Carolina, during the candidate’s debate. This is the last debate between the Republican candidates before the 19 February, 2000 South Carolina primary. (ELECTRONIC IMAGE) AFP PHOTO/POOL (Photo by ERIC DRAPER / POOL / AFP) (Photo credit should read ERIC DRAPER/AFP via Getty Images) 
FILE – In this Dec. 1, 2016 file photo, Larry King arrives at Trump Tower in New York. King, who interviewed presidents, movie stars and ordinary Joes during a half-century in broadcasting, has died at age 87. Ora Media, the studio and network he co-founded, tweeted that King died Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021 morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) 
FILE – In this April 18, 2007 file photo, Larry King speaks to guests at a party held by CNN, celebrating King’s fifty years of broadcasting in New York. King, who interviewed presidents, movie stars and ordinary Joes during a half-century in broadcasting, has died at age 87. Ora Media, the studio and network he co-founded, tweeted that King died Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021 morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. ( AP Photo/Stuart Ramson, File)
“It was important to me to come across as a ‘big man,”’ he wrote in his autobiography, which meant “I made a lot of money and spread it around lavishly.”
He accumulated debts and his first broken marriages, he was married eight times to seven women. He gambled, borrowed wildly and failed to pay his taxes. He also became involved with a shady financier in a scheme to bankroll an investigation of President Kennedy’s assassination. But when King skimmed some of the cash to pay his overdue taxes, his partner sued him for grand larceny in 1971. The charges were dropped, but King’s reputation appeared ruined.
King lost his radio show and, for several years, struggled to find work. But by 1975 the scandal had largely blown over and a Miami station gave him another chance. Regaining his local popularity, King was signed in 1978 to host radio’s first nationwide call-in show.
Originating from Washington on the Mutual network, “The Larry King Show” was eventually heard on more than 300 stations and made King a national phenomenon.
A few years later, CNN founder Ted Turner offered King a slot on his young network. “Larry King Live” debuted on June 1, 1985, and became CNN’s highest-rated program. King’s beginning salary of $100,000 a year eventually grew to more than $7 million.
A three-packs-a-day cigarette habit led to a heart attack in 1987, but King’s quintuple-bypass surgery didn’t slow him down.
In 1997, he wed Shawn Southwick, a country singer and actress 26 years his junior. They would file for divorce in 2010, rescind the filing, then file for divorce again in 2019.
The couple had two sons, King’s fourth and fifth kids, Chance Armstrong, born in 1999, and Cannon Edward, born in 2000. In 2020, King lost his two eldest children, Andy King and Chaia King, who died of unrelated health problems within weeks of each other.
He had many other medical issues in recent decades, including more heart attacks and diagnoses of type 2 diabetes and lung cancer.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.