Veteran broadcast journalist Mike Wallace has died, according to CBS News.
He was 93 years old and and had been in declining health in recent years.
Wallace was a correspondent on the CBS News program "60 Minutes," since its premiere in 1968 where he earned a reputation as one of the toughest interviewers in the business.
He spent 38 seasons with the program before announcing his retirement in 2006.
But Wallace remained as correspondent emeritus with the program and still occasionally contributed to the news magazine and CBS News platforms after the 2005-06 season, according to his official CBS News biography.
When he announced his retirement, Wallace told CBS News' Bob Schieffer that the job has been a quite a journey.
"To go around the world, to talk to almost anybody you want to talk to, to have enough time on the air, so that you could really tell a full story," Wallace said. "What a voyage of discovery it was."
Over the years, Wallace sat down with seven U.S. Presidents as well as other world leaders, celebrities, sports stars, and controversial figures like Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Jose Canseco, Yasir Arafat and Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
His investigative reporting in the 1990's revealed the secrets of the tobacco industry and inspired the Hollywood movie, "The Insider."
Wallace also made his name as a war correspondent in the 1960's, covering Vietnam.
He started his journalism career in the 1940s as a radio news writer and broadcaster for Chicago Sun.
He joined CBS News in 1951 and later returned to the network in 1963 after leaving in 1955.
During his remarkable career, he won more than 20 Emmy Awards and several other honors.
He also wrote several books including "Between You and Me," with Gary Paul Gates and "Heat and Light: Advice for the Next Generation of Journalists" in collaboration with Fordham University journalism professor Beth Knobel.
It's another big loss for the CBS News family after the death of Andy Rooney who died at the age of 92 on Nov. 5, 2011.
