Mike Wallace, who spent four decades as a hard-hitting, provocative news correspondent on "60 Minutes," has died, CBS reported Sunday. He was 93.

        "For half a century, he took on corrupt politicians, scam artists and bureaucratic bumblers," CBS News said on its website. "... Wallace took to heart the old reporter's pledge to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. He characterized himself as 'nosy and insistent.'"

        During Sunday's night episode of "60 Minutes," Morley Safer called Wallace "a one-man truth squad with a remarkable gift for getting to the very core of a story."

        "More than anyone else, he was responsible for the continuing success of '60 Minutes,'" Safer said. "We're all in his debt."

        Hours earlier, Safer described his longtime colleague to CNN as someone who was "never dull," "fearless" and "tenacious," driven to get a scoop and to the heart of events, issues and people that shaped the world.

        "Mike was irrepressible. You could never ... knock him down, he would bounce right back up," said Safer, expressing a deep admiration for a man whom he'd often jostle against for stories. "The fact is he was nosier than everybody else and more insistent, and more successful at being nosy."

        Scott Bronstein, a CNN senior investigative producer who worked with Wallace as a "60 Minutes" staff producer during the late 1990s, remembered him as "an unbelievable journalist" with high standards and unique talent as an interviewer.

        "He was inspiring," said Bronstein. "He made you want to do your best work. He always demanded you to report more and more. He was such a marvel, the way he could do an interview."

        Wallace is survived by his wife, Mary; son Chris, host of "Fox News Sunday"; a stepdaughter, Pauline Dora; two stepsons, Eames and Angus Yates; seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, CBS said.