Politicrossing By
Larry King the most prolific interviewer in the history of media, who conducted over 5000 interviews, has passed away at the age of 87.
How many of us can remember sitting and watching Larry king interview the most famous people on earth? Whether you agree with him or not, whether you share his politics or not, he always seemed to be able to bring out the best in those he interviewed.
He is most well known for his CNN interview show that began in 1985.
King definitely led a colorful life and courted his share of controversy.
Below is the full 1987 interview where Larry King talks with Donald Trump:
Here are the highlights of King’s Life from Wikipedia:
Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021) was an American television host, radio host, and paid spokesman, whose work was recognized with awards including two Peabodys, an Emmy award, and 10 Cable ACE Awards.
King began as a local Florida journalist and radio interviewer in the 1950s and 1960s, and gained prominence beginning in 1978 as host of The Larry King Show, an all-night nationwide call-in radio program heard on the Mutual Broadcasting System. From 1985 to 2010, he hosted the nightly interview television program Larry King Live on CNN. From 2012 to 2020, he hosted Larry King Now on Hulu and RT America. He continued to host Politicking with Larry King, a weekly political talk show which aired weekly on the same two channels from 2013 until his death.
King was married eight times, to seven women. He married high-school sweetheart Freda Miller in 1952 at age 19. That union ended the following year at the behest of their parents, who reportedly had the marriage annulled. King was later briefly married to Annette Kaye, who gave birth to his son, Larry Jr., in November 1961. King did not meet Larry Jr. until the latter was in his thirties.
In 1961, King married his third wife, Alene Akins, a Playboy Bunny, at one of the magazine’s eponymous nightclubs. King adopted Akins’ son Andy in 1962; the couple divorced the following year. In 1963, King married his fourth wife, Mary Francis “Mickey” Stuphin, who divorced King. He remarried Akins, with whom he had a second child, Chaia, in 1969. The couple divorced a second time in 1972. In 1997, Dove Books published a book written by King and Chaia, Daddy Day, Daughter Day. Aimed at young children, it tells each of their accounts of his divorce from Akins.
On September 25, 1976, King married his fifth wife, mathematics teacher and production assistant Sharon Lepore. The couple divorced in 1983.
King met businesswoman Julie Alexander in 1989, and proposed to her on the couple’s first date on August 1, 1989. Alexander became King’s sixth wife on October 7, 1989, when the two were married in Washington, D.C. The couple lived in different cities, however, with Alexander in Philadelphia, and King in Washington, D.C., where he worked. They separated in 1990 and divorced in 1992. He became engaged to actress Deanna Lund in 1995, after five weeks of dating, but they remained unmarried.
In 1997, he married his seventh wife, Shawn Southwick, born in 1959 (as Shawn Ora Engemann), a singer, actress, and TV host. They wed in King’s Los Angeles hospital room three days before King underwent heart surgery to clear a clogged blood vessel. The couple had two children: Chance, born March 1999, and Cannon, born May 2000. He was stepfather to Arena Football League quarterback Danny Southwick. On King and Southwick’s 10th anniversary in September 2007, Southwick joked she was “the only [wife] to have lasted into the two digits”. Larry and Shawn King filed for divorce in 2010 but reconciled, and filed for divorce again on August 20, 2019.
King resided in Beverly Hills, California. A lifelong Brooklyn Dodgers/Los Angeles Dodgers fan, King was frequently seen behind home plate at the team’s games. King was previously part of an investment group that attempted to bring a Major League Baseball franchise to Buffalo, New York in 1990.
From his seven wives, King had five children and nine grandchildren, as well as four great-grandchildren. Both of his children with Alene, Andy and Chaia, died within weeks of each other in August 2020, Andy at 65 from a heart attack and Chaia at 51 from lung cancer.
