Babar author Laurent de Brunhoff dies aged 98

Author Laurent de Brunhoff with a Babar cuddly toy (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press/AP/PA)

Babar author Laurent de Brunhoff, who revived his father’s popular picture book series about an elephant king and presided over its rise to a global franchise, has died at the age of 98.

De Brunhoff, a Paris native who moved to the US in the 1980s, died on Friday at his home in Key West, Florida, after being in hospice care for two weeks, according to his widow, Phyllis Rose.