Larry King

Lawrence Harvey Zeiger (November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021), professionally known as Larry King, was an American television and radio host whose career spanned over six decades, most notably as the anchor of CNN's Larry King Live from 1985 to 2010.

King's signature program featured straightforward, conversational interviews with a diverse array of guests including every U.S. president from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama, celebrities like Marlon Brando, and global figures, often incorporating live viewer call-ins that set a precedent for interactive television broadcasting.

Lawrence Harvey Zeiger, later known as Larry King, was born on November 19, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York City, to Jewish immigrant parents of Eastern European origin. His father, Edward (or Aaron) Zeiger, emigrated from Austria and operated a small bar and grill while also working in a defense plant, reflecting the modest entrepreneurial efforts common among working-class immigrants during the Great Depression era. His mother, Jennie Gitlitz, born in Vilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire), was initially a homemaker before taking up garment factory work to support the family; she embodied the resilient, traditional Jewish maternal role emphasized in King's later reflections on his upbringing. The family, Orthodox Jews, lived in a tight-knit, economically strained household in Brooklyn's immigrant communities, where Zeiger was one of two sons, with a younger brother named Marty.

Despite these challenges, King's early years were shaped by the cultural rhythms of Brooklyn's Jewish enclave, including synagogue attendance and family storytelling traditions that fostered his lifelong interest in communication and narrative. He often recounted how his mother's emphasis on perseverance and verbal engagement—hallmarks of Jewish immigrant households—laid the groundwork for his future career, though the family's Orthodox practices waned after the father's death due to financial pressures. These formative experiences in a post-Depression, wartime Brooklyn underscored themes of loss and adaptation that King referenced in autobiographies and interviews as pivotal to his character development.