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Photographer at RFK assassination dies in Conn.

Bill Eppridge photographed Senator Robert Kennedy sprawled semiconscious in his own blood on floor after being shot in the brain & neck while busboy Juan Romero tries to comfort him.
Bill Eppridge photographed Senator Robert Kennedy sprawled semiconscious in his own blood on floor after being shot in the brain & neck while busboy Juan Romero tries to comfort him.Bill Eppridge, Time & Life Pictures / Getty Image
Photographer Bill Eppridge attends Photo LA's 22nd Annual Photographic Art Exposition at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on January 17, 2013 in Santa Monica, California.
Photographer Bill Eppridge attends Photo LA's 22nd Annual Photographic Art Exposition at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on January 17, 2013 in Santa Monica, California.Leslie Nestor Miranda, FilmMagic

DANBURY, Conn. — Photojournalist Bill Eppridge, whose long career included capturing images of a mortally wounded Robert F. Kennedy, has died at age 75.

He died Thursday at a Danbury hospital after a brief illness, said his wife, Adrienne Aurichio.

Bill Eppridge photographed Senator Robert Kennedy sprawled semiconscious in his own blood on floor after being shot in the brain & neck while busboy Juan Romero tries to comfort him.
Bill Eppridge photographed Senator Robert Kennedy sprawled semiconscious in his own blood on floor after being shot in the brain & neck while busboy Juan Romero tries to comfort him.Bill Eppridge, Time & Life Pictures / Getty Image

Eppridge was at the scene on June 5, 1968, when Kennedy, then a U.S. senator who had just won California's Democratic presidential primary, had addressed campaign supporters at a Los Angeles hotel and was walking through its kitchen.

He took some of the most well-known images after Kennedy was shot. One of those images, published in Life magazine, showed Kennedy lying on the floor in a pool of his blood, a hotel employee kneeling next to him.

Eppridge's career also included stints working for high-profile magazines such as Sports Illustrated and National Geographic.

He photographed a wide range of subjects, including the Beatles, young people in what was then the Soviet Union, the Olympics, wars and Woodstock.

Eppridge, who lived in Connecticut, always had a camera with him, Aurichio said.

"He was a photojournalist to the end," she said.

A book of Eppridge photographs of the Fab Four, "The Beatles: Six Days That Changed the World. February, 1964," is coming out early next year, Aurichio said.

Eppridge's funeral will be private, with a memorial service to follow, she said.