Broadcaster’s talk show became platform of choice for politicians and celebrities

Larry King, who has died aged 87, was an American success story – the boy from a poor immigrant family who struggled his way up to become the ‘‘Pope of Talk’’ – the most avidly watched television personality in the world.

On the way King had been through disgrace, bankruptcy and eight marriages (two to the same woman). At his peak in the 1990s, however, the ‘‘little Jewish kid from Brooklyn’’ not only ruled American television but personified the very notion of the electronic global village, his craggy features, loud braces, smoothed-back hair, hornrimmed glasses and Brooklyn drawl was reported by PR

Week to reach 170 million households worldwide. Saddam Hussein was said to be a fan, as was Slobodan Milosevic.

Everybody who was anybody wanted to be interviewed on his CNN show Larry King Live. Washington power brokers and world leaders queued up for a slot and the programme became a mandatory stop for celebrities promoting a project or agonising about their latest personal crisis.

Marlon Brando gave his first interview in 20 years to King. The day after he was acquitted of murder, O J Simpson rang in for a live chat. Altogether King claimed to have conducted interviews with more than 30,000 people, including six American presidents and their wives.

CNN billed King as ‘‘the Muhammad Ali of the television interview’’, but this was several leagues wide of the mark. Many viewed him as a suspect figure who fawned on the rich and powerful (one media watcher called him ‘‘our great national suck-up’’) and gave his interviewees a free ride. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd referred to him as ‘‘the resort area of American journalism, the media’s Palm Springs, where politicians and other figures of controversy or celebrity can go to unwind, kick back and reflect’’.

Authors promoting their latest work were told their books were ‘‘tremendous’’, even though King admitted he never read them. Politicians got much the same treatment. When in the 1980s he interviewed the South African ambassador he did not mention Nelson Mandela once, even though at the time pressure to free Mandela was intense. ‘‘If you come off Larry King looking bad,’’ observed the Republican Pat Buchanan, ‘‘you’ve only yourself to blame.’’

King claimed his chummy nonconfrontational approach could lull interviewees into allowing personal truths to come out. He described himself as an ‘‘infotainer’’ rather than a journalist, and part of the appeal of his show was its seamless bridge between Hollywood and politics.

Larry King was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in Brooklyn, New York, the son of immigrants from Belarus. He was 10 when his

He described himself as an ‘‘infotainer’’ ... and part of the appeal of his show was its seamless bridge between Hollywood and politics.

father, a bar owner, died, leaving the family living on welfare in a slum attic.

Larry was not a good student and barely got through high school. But he knew he had a ‘‘kinda gift’’ from his bar mitzvah when he had held guests spellbound with his ‘‘today I am a man’’ speech. He dreamed of being on the radio, and was finally given a job sweeping floors with WAHR radio Miami. When, shortly afterwards, a disc jockey resigned, he convinced the management to try him out as a replacement. His manager told him Zeiger was ‘‘too German, too Jewish and not showbusiness enough’’, so he changed it. Within two years he had his own morning talk show.

By 1970, he had both radio and television shows, a US$70,000-a-year column in the Miami Herald and a spot as colour commentator for the Miami Dolphins. He lived a playboy life, married a former Playboy bunny, Alene Akins, had extramarital affairs, drove a Cadillac, and gambled on the horses.

But he found success harder to handle than poverty, and in 1971 he was charged with stealing $5000 from a business partner. The charge was eventually dropped, but the unfavourable publicity cost him his jobs – as well as his marriage.

From 1972 to 1975, King struggled to get back on his feet. In 1975 one of his former Miami radio stations offered him his old show back, but by 1978 high living and divorce settlements had taken their toll, and he was declared bankrupt.

Things took a turn for the better when, later that year, the Mutual Broadcasting Company hired him to launch an all-night talk show. Starting on only 28 stations, The Larry King Show grew to be the first nationwide call-in show and one of the most popular radio shows in American history. His audience appeal led the fledgling Cable News Network in 1985 to book him for Larry King Live, which soon became CNN’s highest-rated programme.

He was married for the eighth time, in 1997, to Shawn Southwick. They separated last year; she survives him along with their two sons and a son from a previous marriage. Another son and a daughter predeceased him. – Telegraph Group/Washington Post