Broadcasting icon Larry King has died at age 87, CNN.com reported.
King died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Ora Media, the studio and network he co-founded, tweeted. No cause of death was given, but CNN had earlier reported he was hospitalized with COVID-19.
A longtime nationally syndicated radio host, from 1985 through 2010 he was a nightly fixture on CNN (on Larry King Live), where he won many honors, including two Peabody awards.
King conducted an estimated 50,000 on-air interviews, talking with everyone from the Dalai Lama to the actor Marlon Brando (who famously kissed King on the lips after their interview) to Lady Gaga.
HuffPost noted that King was a staunch LGBTQ-rights advocate. In 2014, he said on The Rubin Report, "We have a Black president. Yes, we'll have a gay president; yes, we'll have a female president. Life is changing, and the politician will have to change along with it, or lose."
King was married eight times to seven women. He had five children, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren at the time of his death.
