‘Hustler’ founder and porn magnate Larry Flynt dead at 78

Adult entertainment impresario built empire of magazines, films, and casino

‘Hustler’ founder and porn magnate Larry Flynt dead at 78 (Getty Images)

Larry Flynt, who founded the popular Hustler pornographic magazine and was involved in numerous First Amendment lawsuits over a nearly five-decade career, died of heart failure in his Los Angeles home on Wednesday, TMZ reports. He was 78.

The adult entertainment impresario built an empire of magazines, films, and even a casino, and dipped his toe into politics as well. He ran for president in 1984 and governor of California in 2003, and offered $1m for evidence of Bill Clinton having improper sexual interactions during the former president's impeachment trial.

Born in Kentucky in 1942, Flynt founded the Hustler Club in 1965, which evolved into a series of clubs in cities around the US. In 1972, he expanded the Hustler brand to an advertorial newsletter, which then became a magazine, the first issue of which was published in 1974.

In the late 1990s, Flynt began to produce pornographic movies via the Hustler Video film studio, and in 2000, he opened the Hustler Casino in the Los Angeles suburb of Gardena.

In 1996, the film The People vs Larry Flynt was produced starring Woody Harrelson in the title role, plus Miloš Forman, Courtney Love, and Edward Norton. The movie earned nominations for an Best Actor for Harrelson and Best Director for Forman at the 69th Academy Awards.

Flynt was infamously the victim of a shooting in 1978, when, during a legal battle in Georgia, he was shot on the sidewalk by a gunman, who later identified himself as Joseph Paul Franklin. The shooting left Flynt partially paralysed and with permanent spinal cord damage. He would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.