Warren Christopher Dies at Age 85

Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher died Friday due to complications from kidney and  bladder cancer. He was 85.

Christopher served three presidents before returning to Los Angeles to help run the global  law firm O'Melveny & Myers. Christopher was secretary of state during Bill Clinton's first  term. He served Lyndon Johnson as deputy attorney general and Jimmy Carter as  deputy secretary of state.

Clinton happened to be in Los Angeles Friday to receive the William O.  Douglas Award at Public Counsel Law Center's annual gala at the Beverly Hilton,  where Barbra Streisand introduced the former president.

The lifelong Democrat was known as a calm and even-handed politician. In  his 2001 autobiography, he wrote: "My task had been to serve as steward, not  proprietor, of an extraordinary public trust."

His family issued a statement, saying he died at home surrounded by his  family. He and his wife, the former Marie Wyllis, had three children. He also  had a fourth child from an earlier marriage. Funeral plans are pending.

When Christopher's portrait was unveiled at the State Department in  1999, he quipped: "To anyone who has served in Washington, there is something  oddly familiar about (having your portrait painted). First, you're painted into  a corner, then you're hung out to dry and, finally, you're framed."

Born in Midwest, Raised in California

Born Warren Minor Christopher in Scranton, N.D., he came to California  with his family and attended Hollywood High School. His father, a banker in  North Dakota, died at age 53, just four years after moving to California.

After a stint at the University of Redlands, he transferred to USC where  he graduated magna cum laude in 1945. From 1943 to 1946, he was also an  active duty reserve naval ensign in the Pacific.

He earned his law degree in 1949 from Stanford, where he founded the  school's law review. After graduation, he worked as a clerk to U.S. Supreme  Court Justice William O. Douglas, before joining O'Melveny & Myers in 1950.

Then Gov. Pat Brown hired him as a special adviser, and Christopher  wrote speeches for him.

He became a partner at O'Melveny & Myers in 1958 -- at age 33 -- and the  firm credited him with helping it rise to "national and international  prominence.''

After serving in the Johnson administration, he returned to O'Melveny in  1969.

Under Carter, he became deputy secretary of state in 1977 and served in  that position until January 20, 1981. He led diplomatic relations with China,  worked on the treaties that returned control of the Panama Canal to Panama and  was involved in getting 52 American hostages freed from their Iranian captors.

Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Jan. 16, 1981. 

In Los Angeles, he served as the head of various organizations,  including the county bar association. He led the panel appointed in 1991 to  recommend reforms to the Los Angeles Police Department after the Rodney King  beating.

Recommendations made by the Christopher Commission, which concluded that  a significant number of Los Angeles police officer routinely used excessive  force in making arrests, led to the establishment of the five-member Police  Commission, a civilian panel given the authority to set policy for the police  department.

One of the reforms recommended by the Christopher Commission is just now  coming to fruition -- placing video cameras in police cars. Serving in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1997, Christopher worked  to expand NATO, negotiate peace in Israel and pressure China to make human  rights reforms.

Since 2003, he taught a course on international affairs as part of the  Honors Program at UCLA.