Walters, who created the popular ABC women’s talk show “The View” in 1997, died on Friday at her home in New York, Robert Iger, chief executive of ABC’s corporate parent, the Walt Disney Co., said on Twitter.
In a broadcast career spanning five decades, Walters interviewed an array of world leaders, including Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi, Saddam Hussein of Iraq and every U.S. president and first lady since Richard and Pat Nixon.
Walters, who began her journalism career on NBC’s “The Today Show” in the 1960s as a writer and segment producer, earned 12 Emmy awards, 11 of those while at ABC News, according to the network.