As the publisher of a notorious sexually explicit magazine, he found himself at the nexus of a cultural and legal war and became an unlikely free-speech hero
Porn purveyor Larry Flynt, who built Hustler magazine into an adult entertainment empire while championing First Amendment rights, died aged 78.
Key points:
Mr Flynt was in poor health and died of heart failure at his Hollywood Hills home according to family
His publishing and financial successes were offset in equal measure by controversies and tragedies
He was paralysed from the waist down after being shot by a sniper, and won high profile court cases
Flynt had been in frail health and died of heart failure at his Hollywood Hills home, his nephew Jimmy Flynt Jr said.
From his beginnings as an Ohio strip club owner to his reign as founder of one of the most explicit adult-oriented magazines, Flynt constantly challenged the establishment and became a target for the religious right and feminist groups.
He scored a surprising US Supreme Court victory over the Reverend Jerry Falwell, who had sued him for libel after a 1983 Hustler alcohol ad suggested Falwell had lost his virginity to his mother in an outhouse.
Flynt's company produced not only Hustler but other niche publications. He owned a video production company, various websites, a Los Angeles-area casino and 10 Hustler boutiques.
He also licensed the Hustler name to independently owned strip clubs.
His publishing and financial successes were offset in equal measure by controversies and tragedies.
Shot by a sniper in 1978, Flynt was paralysed from the waist down and used a $17,000 gold-plated wheelchair for the rest of his life.
He fought battles with drug and alcohol addiction, and his fourth wife died of a heroin overdose.
His daughter, Lisa Flynt-Fugate, died in a 2014 car crash in Ohio at age 47.
In 2017 Flynt offered a $10 million reward for evidence that would lead to Donald Trump's impeachment.
With a fortune estimated at more than $100 million, Flynt spent his later years in the political arena.
When Governor Gray Davis was recalled by California voters in 2003, Flynt was among 135 candidates who ran to replace him.
He called himself "a smut peddler who cares" and gathered more than 15,000 votes.
A self-described progressive, Flynt was no fan of former president Donald Trump.
Before the 2016 election, he offered up to $1 million for video or audio recordings of Mr Trump engaging in illegal or "sexually demeaning or derogatory" activity.
Mr. Flynt planning an issue of Hustler with a photo editor, Edward Sonner, in 1977.
In 2017 Flynt offered a $10 million reward for evidence that would lead to Mr Trump's impeachment, and in 2019, Larry Flynt Publications sent a Christmas card to some Republican congressional members that showed Mr Trump lying dead in a pool of blood with the killer saying: "I just shot Donald Trump on Fifth Avenue and no one arrested me".
It was in reference to Mr Trump's boast that he could commit such a killing and wouldn't lose votes.
Flynt's life was depicted in the 1996 film The People vs Larry Flynt, which brought Oscar nominations for director Milos Forman and Woody Harrelson, who played Flynt.
He was married five times and had four surviving children.
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