[4] King was born and raised in New York City to Jewish parents who immigrated to the United States from what is now Belarus in the 1920s.

During his early childhood, the family lived at 208 Howard Avenue, a rowhouse in a section of the borough alternatively characterized as part of Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Brownsville or Ocean Hill.

[20] A CBS production supervisor, James F. Sirmons, suggested he go to Florida, which was a growing media market with openings for inexperienced broadcasters.

After initial setbacks, he gained his first job in radio at a small station, WAHR[21] (now WMBM),[22] in Miami Beach, hired him to clean up and perform miscellaneous tasks.

[citation needed] He acquired the name Larry King when the general manager declared that Zeiger was too difficult to remember,[25] saying it was "too German, too Jewish and not showbusiness enough".

[36] On December 20, 1971, he was dismissed by both WIOD and television station WTVJ as a late-night radio host and sports commentator following his arrest for grand larceny by a former business partner, Louis Wolfson.

[32] On January 30, 1978, King began hosting a nightly coast-to-coast radio program on the Mutual Broadcasting System,[40] inheriting the talk show slot that had begun with Herb Jepko in late 1975, then followed by "Long John" Nebel in 1977.

[43] At 3 a.m., the Open Phone America segment began, where he allowed callers to discuss any topic they pleased with him,[42][44] until the end of the program when he expressed his own political opinions.

Many stations in the western time zones carried the Open Phone America portion of the show live, followed by the guest interview on tape delay.

[49] King occasionally entertained the audience by telling amusing stories from his youth or early broadcasting career.

His reputation for asking easy, open-ended questions made him attractive to important figures who wanted to state their position while avoiding being challenged on contentious topics.

King also wrote a regular column in USA Today for almost 20 years, from shortly after that first national newspaper's debut in Baltimore–Washington in 1982 until September 2001.

[63] CNN's Larry King Live became "the longest-running television show hosted by the same person, on the same network and in the same time slot", and was recognized for it by the Guinness Book of World Records.

[66] The announcement came in the wake of speculation that CNN had approached Piers Morgan, the British television personality and journalist, as King's primetime replacement,[67] which was confirmed that September.

[72] In March 2012, King co-founded Ora TV, a production company, with his wife Shawn Southwick-King and Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim.

[75] On October 23, 2012, King hosted the third-party presidential debate on Ora TV, featuring Jill Stein, Rocky Anderson, Virgil Goode, and Gary Johnson.

King guest starred in episodes of Arthur, 30 Rock and Gravity Falls, had cameos in Ghostbusters and Bee Movie, and voiced Doris the Ugly Stepsister in Shrek 2 and its sequels.

[79] He also played himself in The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story[80][81] and appeared as himself in an episode of Law and Order: Trial by Jury.

[83] King and his wife Shawn appeared on WWE Raw in October 2012, participating in a storyline involving professional wrestlers The Miz and Kofi Kingston.

[84] King became a very active user on the social-networking site Twitter, where he posted thoughts and commented on a wide variety of subjects.

[94] A lifelong Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers fan, he was frequently seen behind home plate at the team's games.

[95] He was part of an investment group that attempted to bring a Major League Baseball franchise to Buffalo, New York, in 1990.

[112] In 1997, King married his seventh wife, Shawn Southwick,[113] a singer, actress, and TV host who is the sister of musician Paul Engemann.

[114] The couple wed in King's Los Angeles hospital room three days before he underwent heart surgery to clear an occluded blood vessel.

[124][125] At the time of his death, in February 2021, it was reported that his estranged wife Shawn Southwick had gone to court to contest King's 2019 handwritten will, which had left his estate (valued at $2 million) to his five surviving children.

[127] Southwick ultimately reached a settlement with King's business management firm, Blouin & Company, and its executives in court in 2024.

[136] He later admitted he had contemplated suicide following the stroke, telling Los Angeles television station KTLA, "I thought I was just going to bite the bullet.

"[137] On January 2, 2021, it was reported that King had been admitted to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles due to severe COVID-19 infection, but moving out of ICU.

[138][139] Three weeks later on January 23 at the age of 87, King died of sepsis infection due to prior health issues, though he had survived the virus.

[149] He was given the Golden Mike Award for Lifetime Achievement in January 2008, by the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California.