Larry King’s production company announced his death today. He passed away at age 87 in Los Angeles early this morning.
King had a 25 year run on CNN’s Larry King Live. CNN chief Jeff Zucker wrote a tribute to King today.
“His curiosity about the world propelled his award-winning career in broadcasting, but it was his generosity of spirit that drew the world to him. We are so proud of the 25 years he spent with CNN, where his newsmaker interviews truly put the network on the international stage.”
CNN President Jeff Zucker Statement January 23, 2021
CNN creator Ted Turner recruited King to join the network early on. “At the time,” King wrote, “people called CNN the Chicken Noodle News… I had no idea if CNN would be successful. But I liked Ted and figured it would be fun to go along for the ride.”
King also had a long running column weekly in USA TODAY. It was just him riffing on whatever was on his mind. Like a compilation of random tweets you’d gather. Twitter before Twitter existed.
King revisted his “My Two Cents” column on his site in 2008. This excerpt gives you a taste of what his wild weekly USA TODAY columns were like. The all caps were his own.
FRANK LANGELLA CAPTURES RICHARD NIXON SO ACCURATELY IN THE MOVIE “FROST – NIXON” – I THOUGHT I WAS WATCHING THE FORMER PRESIDENT…
THE GROUP NOT AT FAULT IN THE BAILOUT TALKS…THE EMPLOYEES WHO DID NOTHING WRONG…
THE DODGERS WILL MAKE A GRAVE MISTAKE IF THEY DON’T WIN THE BIDDING FOR MANNY RAMIREZ…
MICKEY ROURKE’S PERFORMANCE IN “THE WRESTLER” WAS SO INTENSE AS TO ALMOST NOT BE BELIEVED…
I EAT BLUEBERRIES EVERYDAY AND I AM BETTER OFF FOR IT…
I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED CHRISTMAS MUSIC AND CAN NEVER GET ENOUGH OF IT…
IS THERE ANYTHING IN BROADCASTING THAT RYAN SEACREST DOES NOT DO… AND DO WELL…
I DON’T CELEBRATE NEW YEAR’S EVE ANYMORE…
THE PRETTIEST CITY IN AMERICA DURING THE HOLIDAYS IS STILL NY… KRISTEN WIIG GETS FUNNIER EVERY WEEK ON SNL… I’VE NEVER MADE A NEW YEARS RESOLUTION…
ALEX OVECHKIN OF THE WASHINGTON CAPITALS IS THE BEST OFFENSIVE HOCKEY PLAYER I’VE SEEN IN MANY A MOON…
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS THIS YEAR…
I KNOW IT’S A DIGITAL WORLD, BUT I CAN’T STAND DIGITAL WATCHES…
MY FAVORITE ALL TIME FOOTBALL COACH IS STILL DON SHULA…
King also had a long running evening radio show. The first broadcast was in 1957.
Larry was active up until his death. Scanning his Twitter feed, he interviewed a wide range of people this year alone- Bar Rescue’s Jon Taffer, Superman Dean Cain, Governor Chris Christie and Dr. Oz to name a few.
Watch Larry King interview former Libyan leader Gadhafi in 2009:
And interviewing Kelly Pickler in November 2020:
