David Frost dies at 74

In a statement read on BBC television, Frost's family said he had died on Saturday night on board the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth, where he was due to give a speech.

Frost began his more than 50-year-long television career as host of the satirical program "That Was The Week That Was," broadcast on the BBC in the 1960s. A tribute to the assassinated President John F. Kennedy on the program in 1963 cemented his fame across the Atlantic, and it ran there in an American version from 1964 to 1965.

Following its success, he fronted several other programs, before hosting "The Frost Report" and later "The Frost Programme," based on the interview format.

In 1977, he held a series of interviews with former US President Nixon for American television that saw him press the former president on the Watergate scandal. These interviews later formed the basis of a play by Peter Morgan entitled "Frost/Nixon," which was adapted as a film of the same name.

Frost was also long associated with the daytime panel game "Through the Keyhole," which ran from 1987 to 2008 on various channels.

In latter years, he has worked for the broadcaster Al Jazeera as host of the weekly current affairs program "Frost Over the World."

Responding to the news of Frost's death, British Prime Minister David Cameron said: "My heart goes out to David Frost's family. He could be - and certainly was with me - both a friend and a fearsome interviewer."

Frost was knighted in 1993, becoming Sir David. He leaves behind his wife of 20 years, Carina, and their three sons.

tj/ccp (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)