Larry King: Notable interviews

After 25 years on CNN and more than 50 years in broadcasting, Larry King is finally hung up the mike. But one doesn’t spend that much time on TV without a few memorable, awkward or truly bizarre moments. Here are a few of the suspendered one’s highlights during his time on cable news.

RELATED:

- Larry King announces he is ending his prime-time CNN show

The plastic surgeon who worked on Kanye West‘s mother before her death lasted as a guest on Larry’s show for just over a minute. He arrived with his attorney and was informed that the West family planned to take action to have the California medical board decertify him. Adams appeared on the show to inform the host that he wouldn’t be appearing. He’s shown here in a 2006 booking photo after he was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.

-- Patrick Kevin Day

After his ill-fated run-in with a prostitute in 1995, Grant went public with his “transgression.” He admitted to Larry King that he had done something “dishonorable, shabby and goatish.”

-- Jevon Phillips

The eccentric and press-shy Brando agreed to an interview with Larry at his Coldwater Canyon estate in 1994. The unquestionable highlight came when Brando innocently asked for Larry to plant a kiss on his lips. Larry happily obliged.

-- Patrick Kevin Day

The host has had many discussions with the former president over the years. In one of his recent visits, Clinton discussed his latest heart procedure, and Larry King, unbeknownst to many, revealed that he had undergone a similar operation just five weeks earlier. -- Jevon Phillips

It’s the interview that wasn’t.

King sat down with John Mark Karr, the school teacher who falsely confessed to killing child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, but the would-be suspect refused to answer any case-related questions. The murder charges had been dropped and Karr had already done a “Today Show” interview, but his lawyers had advised him not say anything. In a chat that consisted primarily of Karr giving King the runaround, he told the veteran newsman, “I’ve never harmed a child, I’m saying it now, I’m saying that I would protect any child who I thought was being harmed. I don’t recall ever saying that I did harm a child.”

-- Emily Christianson

Sir Paul has been a “Larry King Live” guest more than once. In 2006, McCartney and then-wife Heather Mills appeared to speak about their controversial decision to call on Canada to forever end its annual seal hunt. King asked McCartney if he considered himself an “activist.” McCartney responded by saying, “I do like to try and do anything I can to prevent cruelty, particularly in animals because they don’t have a voice and this is one of the things being an international celebrity, this is one of the advantages of it.”

In 2007, McCartney took part in a sort of Beatles reunion. McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison took part in an interview with the host to promote Cirque du Soleil’s " The Beatles LOVE.”

--Todd Martens (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Before the 2000 election that awarded the presidency to George W. Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke candidly on “Larry King Live” about his past in the KGB, his country’s relatonship with the United States and the loss of Russian navy submarine Kursk, in which 118 men died in August of that year. At the time, Putin had been criticized in the media for his handling of the disaster. “The only thing which could have been changed was ... possibly to halt my working meetings, to suspend them at my place of vacation ... I could have gone back to Moscow,” Putin told King.

--Todd Martens

Donald Trump waits to be interviewed by Larry King during a taping of “Larry King Live” in 1999. in New York. Trump said he had formed an exploratory committee to help him determine whether he could win the White House as a Reform Party candidate.

Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. sits for an interview with Larry King in 1995. Cochran was an attorney in the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, right, makes a point while appearing with Hustler publisher Larry Flynt on Larry King’s CNN show in 1997.

Larry King talks with John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1995.