Le Pen shook the French political establishment when he unexpectedly reached the presidential election run-off vote against Jacques Chirac in 2002.
Despite losing in a landslide, he rewrote the parameters of French politics in a career spanning multiple decades, harnessing voter discontent over immigration and job security - heralding president-elect Donald Trump's own rise, Sky News reported.
After leading the then-National Front from 1972 to 2011, he was succeeded as party chief by his daughter, Marine Le Pen.
She has since run for the presidency three times and turned the party, now called the National Rally, into one of the country's main political forces.
Jordan Bardella, current president of the National Rally, confirmed Le Pen's death on social media.
He said: "Today I am thinking with sadness of his family, his loved ones, and of course of Marine whose mourning must be respected."
MA/PR
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