Roger Ailes, former chief executive of Fox News, the powerful cable news channel for conservatives that helped reshape the US political landscape, has died at age 77.

Ailes' widow, Elizabeth Ailes, announced his death in a statement posted on the Fox News website today.

Ailes resigned from Fox last July following allegations of sexual harassment, marking an abrupt end to his 20-year reign at one of the most lucrative cable channels in the United States.

Under Ailes, Fox raised the temperature of on-air debate on US television, generally taking a hardline conservative view. It has had a mixed relationship with US President Donald Trump, a longtime friend of Ailes, but was instrumental in his election victory in November.

Fox News is owned by Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. Ailes received a severance package of about $40 million when he left Fox News, according to a source familiar with the situation, and went on to serve as an informal adviser to Murdoch.

Under Ailes, Fox raised the temperature of on-air debate on US television, generally taking a hardline conservative view.

“Today America lost one of its great patriotic warriors," Fox News host Sean Hannity said in a statement read on the channel today. "For decades, RA (Roger Ailes) has impacted American politics and media. He has dramatically and forever changed the political and the media landscape single-handedly for the better."

Democrats also weighed in on someone they often saw as a foe. "I knew Ailes. Competed against him in campaigns," said David Axelrod, ex-adviser to former President Barack Obama, on Twitter. "Railed against him many times. But appreciated our frank, back-channel conversations."

Neither his wife nor Fox released any details on the circumstances of Ailes' death. He suffered from hemophilia, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Gabriel Sherman, a reporter who wrote a biography of Ailes, said on Twitter that Ailes died after suffering a blood clot after falling in Palm Beach, Florida, citing two family friends. Reuters could not immediately confirm Sherman's report. (Reuters)

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