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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.

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

(Rose M. Prouser / Associated Press)

The heavily mascaraed former wife of indicted televangelist Jim Bakker made her final public appearance on Larry’s show to discuss her terminal cancer. At the end, she was unable to swallow food and weighed just 65 pounds. She discussed her worries about her family after her death. She died the very next day.

-- Patrick Kevin Day

(Ida Mae Astute / ABC)

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

(Alexander Sibaja/Getty Images)

Sen. Hillary Clinton is interviewed by Larry King at CNN’s studio in Washington, D.C., June 10, 2003. The two discussed the senator’s book titled “Living History,” her life as first lady and as a senator from New York.

(Chris Kleponis / CNN)

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

(AFP/Getty Images)

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

(Joan Adlen/Getty Images)

The former Miss California, who generated much controversy when she discussed her feelings against same-sex marriage during the Miss USA Pageant, said Larry was “being inappropriate” during an interview soon after the pageant. She removed her microphone and threatened to walk off the show. But after a commercial break, she had her microphone back on and completed the interview. Word came later that Prejean objected to Larry accepting callers’ questions.

-- Patrick Kevin Day

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Larry King talks with Paris Hilton.

(Kyle Christy / CNN)

Accustomed to dressing to impress, the fashion shape shifter paid special homage to Larry King for the show’s 30th birthday celebration. She mimicked King’s famous style and wore similar glasses, tie and suspenders. On the show, she revealed that she is borderline positive for lupus and released a sneak peek of her “Alejandro” music video.

-- Lora Victorio

(CNN)

The author of bestselling novel “A Million Little Pieces,” on the show with his mother Lynne, had been exposed as “embellishing” parts of his memoir by thesmokinggun.com. The book’s popularity was heavily due to an endorsement by Oprah Winfrey, who called in to the show toward the end to defend her choice of the book in her book club. She did not outright condemn Frey, and many reported that she still supported the book and its message.

KING: People reading a memoir expect it to be a true story ...

FREY: It’s an individual’s perception of what happened in their own life. This is my recollection of my life.

-- Jevon Phillips

(Edward M. Pio Roda / CNN)

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

(Lorenzo Bevilaqua / Associated Press)

Patty Hearst is interviewed by Larry King on CNN.

(CNN)

Summer 2010 had the sports media buzzing about whether LeBron James would stick with his NBA team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, or move on. In June, the free agent met with Larry King and told the newsman that the Cavaliers had the upper hand. Less than a month later, he signed with the Miami Heat.

Jevon Phillips

(CNN)

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

(Weerawong / Associated Press)

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

(LORENZO BEVILAQUA/AFP/Getty Images)

This episode of “Larry King Live” included a historic back-and-forth debate between then-Vice President Al Gore and billionaire Ross Perot in 1993 about the North American Free Trade Agreement, and was the highest-rated program in cable history for over a decade. King could barely keep order as the two political heavyweights argued over the particulars.

-- Jevon Phillips

(AP)

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.

(Marty Lederhandler / Associated Press)

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.

(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)

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

(Todd Plitt / Associated Press)

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

(Sam Kittner / Associated Press)