Former Today show co-host Jim Hartz has died at the age of 82 after decades of a career with NBC

Award-winning news anchor and former Today show co-host Jim Hartz has died at the age of 82 from lung disease COPD

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The Eleventh Hour with Jim Hartz on WNBC in 1972

Award-winning broadcaster and former Today show co-host Jim Hartz has reportedly passed away at the age of 82.

His wife Alexandra Dickson Hartz is understood to have confirmed the news, with the news anchor reportedly dying of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease known as COPD.

The journalist – who was born James Hartz in 1940 – is believed to have died last Sunday (April 17) in Fairfax County, Virginia, where he is believed to have lived for the last several years.

He is perhaps best known for co-hosting the NBC morning show Today with Barbara Walters, now 92, between 1974 and 1976. He had replaced the late Frank McGee.

Corresponding The sunhe covered both national and local news throughout his career – particularly on issues such as war, science and the space program.

In his decades-long career, he has hosted other shows at NBC, reportedly being the youngest correspondent hired by the network – he became a presenter at the age of 24.

The Emmy Award-winning reporter, who grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, first worked for KOTV in his home state and was later promoted to the new director in 1964.

Shortly after holding the previous position, he joined WNBC-TV – owned by NBC – in New York, where he served as an evening news anchor in his mid-twenties.

Hartz co-hosted the Today Show for two years in the mid-1970s The New York Times He explained that the stories in the role included coverage of President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

After leaving, he worked as a news anchor at WRC-TV in Washington, DC from 1976 to 1979 before joining PBS to become a co-host of the celebrity talk show Over Easy.

He was reported to have co-hosted the weekly show Asia Now in the early 1990s while working for PBS, the project meaning he hosted from Tokyo, Japan.

Hartz is said to have later turned away from journalism, although in 1993 he is said to have become chairman of the Oklahoma-based Will Rogers Memorial Commission.

He is believed to be survived by his wife Alexandra and his two daughters, Jana Hartz Maher and Nancy Hartz Cole. He is said to have six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.