LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Glen Larson, the renowned television writer-producer whose works include Magnum, P.I. and Battlestar Galactica, has died of cancer at age 77, the Hollywood Reporter said Saturday.

The famed television titan died at UCLA Medical Centre in Santa Monica, California, of esophageal cancer Friday night, his son told the insider magazine.

Larson also wrote and produced the television series Knight Rider, It Takes A Thief and McCloud, but he is perhaps best known for the 1980-1988 Magnum, P.I. starring a mustachioed Tom Selleck as a private investigator in Hawaii.

He is survived by his wife Jeannie and nine children from previous marriages.

A memorial service will be held in the near future, his son said.