The iconic 87-year-old announcer died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to a statement posted on Saturday on his verified Facebook account.
King hosted “Larry King Live” on CNN for 25 years – conducting more than 30,000 interviews, including the long, wide and at times bizarre 1994 live conversation from Brando, twice an Oscar winner.
Brando, who did not give many interviews, was promoting his book, “Songs My Mother Taught Me”.
The interview ended famously with the two men singing “Got a Date with an Angel” and Brando kissing King on the mouth.
“Honey, goodbye,” Brando then said to King.
Wendy Walker, then the show’s executive producer, happily recalled the moment on Saturday.
“The only time I had problems in my 32 years on CNN was when we were doing an interview with Marlon Brando,” she said. “And we were doing this from his home because at that time he was an inmate and … that was the only way he would do it.”
At the end of the 90-minute conversation, Walker said, King and Brando were clearly having fun.
“They kissed on the set – which, of course, you remember from that famous kiss. Well, I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is such an iconic moment on TV. Well … our lovely and loving boss we love so much, Tom Johnson, called me and said, ‘Why did you let them kiss?’ “she said, referring to Tom Johnson, president of CNN at the time.
“And I said, ‘I think I forgot … to tell them that if they were having a lot of fun, they shouldn’t kiss at the end of the show.’
Johnson smiled as he recalled Brando’s CNN interview on Saturday. “Larry King Live” was the only CNN program that reported directly to the network’s president.
“It wasn’t just a light kiss. It was a full frontal kiss from both,” he said.
An event like this on television was a rarity: that same year, two men from MTV’s “The Real World: San Francisco” kissed at the first engagement ceremony broadcast on American television.
“And I just sat there … ready to go under the table. I got a lot of calls every now and then, but I knew I would get them then – like I did. But my call to Wendy … it really was, ‘Wendy , why? Why did you let that happen? ‘ “