Larry Flynt, who turned Hustler magazine into an adult entertainment empire while championing First Amendment rights, has died at age 78.

His nephew, Jimmy Flynt Jr., told The Associated Press that Flynt died Wednesday of heart failure at his Hollywood Hills home in Los Angeles. Jimmy Flynt said his uncle had been in frail health and died of heart failure.

As founder of one of the most explicit adult-oriented magazines, Larry Flynt constantly challenged the establishment and became a target for the religious right and feminist groups.

His publishing and financial successes were offset by tragedy. He was shot by a sniper and left paralyzed from the waist down in 1978.

His life was depicted in the Oscar-nominated 1996 film “The People vs. Larry Flynt.”