The Australian labelled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch as "one of the greatest reporters of all time" has died at his US home.
Tabloid journalist Steve Dunleavy died aged 81 on Monday in Long Island, son Sean told the New York-based Daily News.
Known as "Murdoch's attack dog", Dunleavy - whose media career spanned more than 50 years until his 2008 retirement - started out at The Sun and The Daily Mirror in Sydney before later joining the New York Post.
Under Murdoch's Post ownership, Dunleavy bagged several career-defining scoops, such as an interview with the Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo, which included a nude prison photoshoot after smuggling in a camera.
He drew the ire of Elvis Presley fans - including death threats - with the publication of best-selling book "Elvis: What Happened?" shortly before Presley's death, outlining his destructive personal life.
Heralded for introducing tabloid TV to the US, Dunleavy also brought "A Current Affair" to the Fox Network in 1987.
"Whether competing with his own father in the famous Sydney, Australia, tabloid wars, or over the last 40 years in New York, Steve's life story is littered with great scoops," Murdoch told the Post on Tuesday.
"His passing is the end of a great era."
Dunleavy also spent time working in Hong Kong and London before moving to the US, where he worked freelance and for the National Star before the Post.
An wooden etching of Dunleavy now hangs in the Post newsroom.
His induction into the Australian Media Hall of Fame in 2017 highlighted his "whatever it takes, larger-than-life" approach to journalism and "rambunctious, swashbuckling and hard-drinking" career.
He is survived by wife Gloria and sons Peter and Sean.
"It just was very sudden ... but he was home, it was peaceful. But we don't know what the cause of death was," Sean said.
