NEW YORK (December 21, 2012)--Larry L. King, a writer and playwright whose magazine article about a campaign to close down a popular bordello became the hit Tony Award-nominated musical "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" and a movie starring Burt Reynolds, has died at the age of 83.

King's wife, Barbara Blaine, said her husband died Thursday night at Chevy Chase House, a retirement home in Washington, D.C., where he had been living the past six months.

He helped adapt his Playboy article about the Texas bordello into a musical directed by Tommy Tune that opened in 1978 and went on to last for more than 1,584 performances.

His books include "None But a Blockhead" about writing, and a children's book called "Because of Lozo Brown."