Larry King retiring

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Larry King retiring

For more than 25 years CNN host Larry King has interviewed a large number of celebrities. He has announced he will leave his late-night talk show in fall 2010.

For 25 years, Larry King has hosted what is still one of CNN's top-rated shows. The longtime interviewer will tape his last "Larry King Live" broadcast on Dec. 16.

Larry King began his career as a local Florida journalist and radio interviewer in the 1950s and '60s. He became prominent as an all-night national radio broadcaster starting in 1978. King has reportedly conducted more than 50,000 interviews throughout his career and has won an Emmy Award, two Peabody Awards, and multiple Cable ACE Awards.

Throughout his career Larry King has interviewed many of the leading figures of his time. In 1996, after complaining to Larry King that Hollywood is "run by Jews," Marlon Brando had to apologize for the apparently anti-Semitic remark. He also kissed King on the lips.

Former wife of televangelist Jim Bakker, Tammy Faye Messner, appeared before Larry King in 2007 to talk about her cancer diagnosis. She told him she couldn't swallow food, and weighed only 65 pounds. King reported her death two days later.

Ted Turner (right) and Larry King sharing a laugh during an interview of Turner by King in a mock edition of 'Larry King Live' in the ballroom of the World Congress Center before an audience gathered for the National Cable Television Association awards in May 1998.

A week after partner Roy Horn was injured by one of their white tigers during a 2003 "Siegfried & Roy" performance in Las Vegas, Siegfried Fischbacher (center), appeared on "Larry King Live" to discuss the accident.

In February 2000, Larry King asks a question to the Republican presidential candidates Sen. John McCain (left), Alan Keyes, and George W. Bush during the Republican presidential debate, which was carried live during his show.

Larry King interviewed Linda Tripp, a central figure in the Monica Lewinsky-Bill Clinton scandal, about her role in the Pentagon's public affairs office, her lawsuit against the government and her battle with breast cancer.

In 1996, basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson declared on "Larry King Live" he would test free agency.

Denise Brown wipes away a tear during a break with talk show host Larry King while taping an interview Dec. 20, 1996. Brown was on CNN's "Larry King Live" to talk about O.J. Simpson being awarded full custody of his two children earlier in the day.

A frequent guest, Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, has spoken candidly about his relationship with John Lennon, then-wife Heather Mills and his love of poetry.

Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst Shaw, who gained notoriety in 1974 following her kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army, went on "Larry King Live" on Jan. 31, 2001, to say she was "astounded" at being pardoned by President Clinton during his last day in office.

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For 25 years, Larry King has hosted what is still one of CNN's top-rated shows. The longtime interviewer will tape his last "Larry King Live" broadcast on Dec. 16.

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