Larry King Net Worth

Larry King was an American radio and television host. He is known for hosting Larry King Live on CNN. He has hosted more than 50,000 interviews in his career. He died at the age of 87, at the time of his death Larry King net worth was $50 million. 

Early Life

Larry King’s real name is Lawrence Harvey Zeiger. He was born on 19 November 1933, to Aaron Zeiger and Jennie. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father Aaron owned a restaurant, and his mother Jennie worked in a garment business. King completed his schooling at Lafayette High School. At a very young age, his father died of a heart attack at the age of 44. Due to his father’s death, he lost his interest in school and started working at a radio station. 

Career

In 1957, he got his first job as a cleaner at WAHR radio station. Then started working as a disc jockey for $50 per week. His manager used to call him King because Zeiger was difficult to remember. Two years later he changed his name legally to Larry King. After he started working for the WIOD radio station at Pumpernik’s Restaurant. He conducted interviews with random people who walked in. He first interviewed a waiter at the restaurant. Two days later, he interviewed his first celebrity guest, Bobby Darin. A few years later, he hosted Miami Undercover on WPST-TV Channel 10(WPLG).  In 1970, he started hosting Sports-a-la-King, a sports talk show. From 1978 to 1994, he hosted an American overnight radio talk show, The Larry King Show. The show was broadcasted from Monday to Friday on Mutual Broadcasting System. 

In 1985, he started hosting Larry King Live, the show was broadcasted on CNN from 9 pm to 10 pm. He also wrote a newspaper column for USA Today for 20 years. King is known for his direct approach in his interviews and to ask open-ended questions to interviewees. 

During his career, King conducted more than 60,000 interviews. In 2010, after 25 years, he retired from the show. 

In 2012, he co-founded a production company, Ora TV, where he began hosting Larry King Now. He has interviewed many famous personalities including Hillary Clinton, Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush, and First Lady Laura Bush amongst others. 

Larry King also appeared in several films and television series including Arthur, American Satan, The Dictator, The Power of Few, Chloe & Theo, The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Exorcist III, Ghostbusters, Gravity Falls, 30 Rock, Bee Movie, The People v.O.J Simpson: American Crime Story, Law and Order: Trial by Jury. He also appeared in WWE Raw. He also voiced Doris the Ugly Stepsister in Shrek 2 amongst others. He also founded the Larry King Cardiac Foundation.

Also Read: Ashton Kutcher Net Worth

Awards and Achievements

In 1982 and 1992, he won the Peabody Award for Excellence in broadcasting for both his radio and television. He has won ten CableACE Awards for Best Interviewer and for Best Talk Show Series. In 1994, King received the Scopus Award from the American Friends of Hebrew University. In 1996, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Art Buchwald. In 2008, He received Golden Mike Award for Lifetime from the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California. 

Personal Life 

King was an atheist. Larry King has five children from eight marriages. At the age of 19, in 1952, he married his high school crush, Freda Miller. 

Later he married Annette Kaye. The couple has one child together, Larry Jr. In 1961, he married Alene Akins; they divorced after one year. He married his fourth wife Mary Francis “Mickey” Sutphin in 1963. In 1969, he remarried Akins and divorced in 1972. In 1976, he married his sixth wife, Sharon Lepore. Lepore was a mathematics teacher and production assistant. They divorced in 1986. In 1989, he married a businesswoman, Julie Alexander. In 1997, he married his seventh wife Shawn Southwick. 

King has 5 children and nine grandchildren from his seven wives. 

In 1987, King had a major heart attack.  In 2019, King underwent a scheduled angioplasty. In 2021, King was hospitalized with COVID-19. He died of sepsis as a complication on January 23, 2021, at the age of 87 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles.

Earnings

In 1985, when he joined CNN, King’s salary was $200,000 per year. By the end of 1990, he was earning $2 million per year. In 1994, he signed a 4-year deal that paid him $3.5 million per year. In 1998, he signed a contract of $7 million per year over five years. 

He is one of the most successful hosts in the history of Television. Larry King net worth is $50 million. 

Comment below what do you think about Larry King’s Net Worth?