Late December 2020, the 87-year-old TV star was taken to a hospital in Los Angeles after testing positive for COVID-19. He later died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Over the years before his death, he battled with a wide range of health issues and suffered from several heart attacks.
In 1987, he went through quintuple bypass surgery, motivating him to establish the Larry Kind Cardiac Foundation to aid those without insurance.
In 2017, King revealed that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and successfully underwent surgery to treat it. In 2019, he also underwent a procedure to address angina.
Harry King’s career spanned more than six decades and is estimated to have organized over 50,000 interviews.
He was a long time host for CNN for over 25 years who became an icon through his interviews with numerous newsmakers and his sartorial sensibilities. He later retired in 2010 after recording over 6,000 episodes of the show.
His death was confirmed by his son, Chance through his verifies Facebook account on Saturday morning.
In a statement made by Ora Media, the studio and network he co-founded, stated: “Whether he was interviewing a US president, foreign leader, celebrity 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.
“For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry’s many thousands of interviews, awards and global acclaim stands as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster.”
The statement did not disclose the cause of death
Piers Morgan, a journalist and TV presenter described King as “brilliant”.
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Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international anchor, wrote on Twitter saying “Larry King was a giant of broadcasting and a master of the TV celebrity/statesman-woman interview”.
Last year, King suffered a personal loss when two of his eldest children- Andy and Chaia King both died of unrelated health issues within weeks of each other. Andy died at the age of 65 after suffering a heart attack while his daughter Chia died at 52 after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
He is survived by his children Larry Jr, Chance and Cannon.