Longtime L.A. Times columnist Al Martínez died on Monday, of congestive heart failure. He was 85.
The legendary writer worked at the LAT for 38 years. He started there in 1972 as a Metro reporter, after spending 16 years as a reporter and columnist at the Oakland Tribune.
He become a columnist at the LAT in January of 1984.
After 25 years penning columns, the LAT laid him off during a downsizing in 2007. When readers protested, he was brought back, but the paper retired him and his column again in 2009.
A few months later he landed at the LA Daily News, where he remained a columnist until 2013. He went on to write for the website LA Observed until November of last year.
Al also wrote for several television series, including the 1976 drama “Jigsaw John,” “Hawaii Five-O” in 1978, “Airwolf” in 1985, and the 1989 television movie “Out on the Edge,” starring Rick Schroder.
He was also the author of several books. Among them: “The Last City Room,” “City of Angles, a Drive-By Portrait of L.A.” and two books profiling Spanish-speaking Americans, “Rising Voices” in 1974 and “Rising Voices: A New Generation” in 1994.
