Larry King

Author: Lida added 28-10-2012, 04:46

Larry King was born on November 19, 1933. He is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards.

Larry King began as a local Florida journalist and radio interviewer in the 1950s and 1960s and became prominent as an all-night national radio broadcaster starting in 1978. From 1985 to 2010, he hosted the nightly interview TV program Larry King Live on CNN.

King was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in Brooklyn, New York City, to an Austrian immigrant Edward Zeiger, a restaurant owner and defense plant worker, and his wife Jennie Gitlitz, a garment worker, who emigrated from Belarus.

King's father died at 44 of heart disease, and his mother had to go on welfare to support her two sons. His father's death greatly affected King, and he lost interest in school. After graduating from high school, he worked to help support his mother. From an early age, however, he had wanted to go into radio.

Larry King started working as a bartender. In 1957 he moved, at the suggestion of James Sermonsa (commentator CBS), in Miami, where he worked as a janitor in the office radio. Since there were not enough speakers, King was proposed to be aired on the radio WAHR. Thus began his career in the media. Larry King went to CNN, when it was just starting to develop, at the suggestion of Ted Turner.

Larry King was married eight times to seven women. He has four children from three wives.

Larry King has been married eighth marriage to Shawn Southwick since 1997.

In 1997, together with other well-known actors and heads of Hollywood, Larry King signed an open letter to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, published in International Herald Tribune, which declares the infringement of religious rights of followers of Scientology in Germany.

In July 2010, Larry King announced a voluntary imminent closure of his show. The last one was released on December 16, 2010. Arnold Schwarzenegger was a guest of this program. The show concluded with his last thoughts and a thank you to his audience for watching and supporting him over the years.

Larry King is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest show on television with the undisputed leader.