I am – Hercules

“Meet The Press” host and NBC Washington bureau chief Tim Russert has passed away.

Russert, who turned 58 last month, apparently collapsed in his office while recording a production track for this weekend's edition of "Meet The Press." He taped an edition of his weekly MSNBC show only this morning.

In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

He became host of "Meet The Press" in 1991 and in that role became the longest-running host of television's longest-running series. He moderated on Oct. 30 a Democratic debate widely perceived as a stumble for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

A graduate of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Russert worked on Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1976 Senatorial campaign and Mario Cuomo's 1982 gubernatorial campaign. He joined NBC’s Washington bureau in 1984 and became the network’s Washington bureau chief in 1988.

In his spare time he wrote two New York Times best-sellers: “Big Russ and Me” (2004) and “Wisdom of Our Fathers” (2006).

"Homicide" fans will remember he played himself on a 1995 episode as the cousin of fictional Baltimore detective Megan Russert.

An attendee of the original Woodstock, he once told Jay Leno he, while still a law school student, booked an unknown Bruce Springsteen at alma mater John Carroll University for $2,500.

Find MSNBC's story on Russert's passing here.