Media Icon Larry King Dies at 87

Larry King, iconic broadcaster and interview host who talked to world leaders, movie stars and ordinary Joes, died Saturday. King died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Ora Media, the studio and network he co-founded, tweeted. He was 87.

Larry King conducted an estimated 50,000 on-air interviews

From 1985 through 2010 he was a nightly fixture on CNN, where he won many honors, including two Peabody awards and several CableACE awards. His easy-going, plainspoken interview style helped define American conversation for a half-century.

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 spoke with entertainers, actors, scientists, political figures and world leaders, other media figures, and was noted for getting elusive guests like Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando, who never gave interviews but asked to be on King’s show.

King’s non-confrontational style relaxed his guests and made him relatable to his audience. He was the “everyman” of TV talk. “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.”

KPGZ News – Brian Watts contributed to this story