Jim Hartz, news anchor and former Today show co-host, dies aged 82Tori Brazier

Jim Hartz was a co-host for Barbara Walters (Picture: Getty/FilmMagic)

Jim Hartz, the former long-serving NBC News correspondent and anchor, best known for co-hosting the Today show, has died at the age of 82.

Hartz is understood to have died on April 17 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD.

His wife Alexandra Dickson Hartz confirmed the news and said that he had elected to be removed from the ventilator that was keeping him alive, according to The New York Times.

Hartz was 34, with more than a decade of experience under his belt at New York City station WNBC, when he succeeded Frank McGee on Today in 1974.

His tenure, although only two years, saw the broadcaster and journalist report on huge moments, including President Richard Nixon’s resignation, the end of the Vietnam War and the American bicentennial.

Born in 1940 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he is survived by his wife Alexandra, two daughters, Jana Hartz Maher and Nancy Hartz Cole, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

His son, John Mitchell Hartz, died in 2015.

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