US comedian Garry Shandling has died aged 66.

The Larry Sanders Show star reportedly died of a massive heart attack at a hospital in Los Angeles on Thursday, TMZ reported.

A source said that the star was fine on Thursday morning, but was transported to hospital from his home later in the day.

Best known as the fictional late-night TV host Larry Sanders - a character he created in 1992 - Shandling won the comedy writing Emmy in 1998 for his work on the Larry Sanders episode Flip.

Director Judd Apatow hailed Shandling's skills in 2010, telling GQ, "There's nobody better in the world than Garry at telling me what's working and what's not ... I'm just very lucky that I've had his input."