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Fidel Castro exhales cigar smoke during a March 1985 interview at his presidential palace in Havana, Cuba. Castro died at age 90 on November 25, 2016, Cuban state media reported. Click through to see more photos from the life of the controversial Cuban leader who ruled for nearly half a century: Charles Tasnadi/AP
A portrait of Castro in New York in 1955. He was in exile after being released as part of a general amnesty for political prisoners in Cuba. Two years earlier, he and about 150 others staged an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the regime of Fulgencio Batista. AFP/Getty Images
Castro with Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara during the early days of their guerrilla campaign in Cuba's Sierra Maestra mountains. Guevara, Castro and Castro's brother Raul organized a group of Cuban exiles that returned to Cuba in December 1956 and waged a guerrilla war against government troops. Getty Images
Castro and his revolutionaries hold up their rifles in January 1959 after overthrowing Batista. Universal History Archive/Getty Images
Crowds cheer Castro on his victorious march into Havana in 1959. Grey Villet/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Surrounded by rebels who came with him from the mountains, Castro gives an all-night speech. Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos
Castro, left, became Cuba's prime minister in February 1959. His brother Raul, right, was commander in chief of the armed forces. AP
During a visit to New York in 1959, Fidel Castro spends time with a group of children. Bob Henriques/Magnum Photos
American talk-show host Ed Sullivan interviews Castro on a taped segment in 1959. CBS Photo Archives/Getty Images
Castro shakes hands with US Vice President Richard Nixon during a reception in Washington in 1959. Keystone/Getty Images
Castro addresses the UN General Assembly in September 1960. AP
Castro jumps from a tank in April 1961 as he arrives at Giron, Cuba, near the Bay of Pigs. That month, a group of about 1,300 Cuban exiles, armed with US weapons, made an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Castro. Bohemia Magazine/AP
Castro announces general mobilization after the announcement of the Cuban blockade by President John F Kennedy in October 1962. Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images
Castro raises arms with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev during a four-week visit to Moscow in May 1963. AFP/Getty Images
Castro in July 1964. Grey Villet/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images
Castro plays baseball in 1964. Ullstei Bild/Getty Images
Castro addresses thousands of Cubans in Havana in 1968. DPA/Landov
In 1977, Castro uses a map as he describes the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion to ABC correspondent Barbara Walters. Tampa Bay Times/MCT/Landov
Iraq's Saddam Hussein, center, with the Castro brothers during a visit to Cuba in January 1979. AFP/Getty Images
Castro greets Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Havana in April 1989. AFP/Getty Images
Castro visits Paris in March 1995. Charles Platiau/Reuters/Landov
Castro meets with Pope John Paul II on an airport tarmac in Havana in January 1998. It was the first papal visit to Cuba. Michel Gangne/AFP/Getty Images
Castro puts his arm around South African President Nelson Mandela in May 1998 with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, left, and Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. They were in Geneva, Switzerland, for a conference of the World Trade Organization. AFP/Getty Images
Castro welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin to Cuba in December 2000. Putin was the first Russian President to visit Cuba since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Getty Images
Castro is helped by aides after he appeared to faint while giving a speech in Cotorro, Cuba, in June 2001. He returned to the podium less than 10 minutes later to assure the audience he was fine and that he just needed to get some sleep. Cristobal Herrera/AP
In July 2001, Castro talks with Elian Gonzalez, the young boy who was the focus of a bitter international custody dispute a couple of years earlier. Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images
Castro and former US President Jimmy Carter listen to the US national anthem after Carter arrived in Havana for a visit in May 2002. Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images
Castro at the May Day commemoration of Revolution Square in Havana in 2004. He held tightly to his belief in a socialist economic model and one-party Communist rule, even after the Soviet Union's end and most of the rest of the world concluded state socialism was an idea whose time had passed. RAFAEL PEREZ/Newscom/REUTERS
Castro, left, and his brother Raul attend a session of the Cuban parliament in July 2004. Cristobal Herrera/AP
Castro speaks in Havana in February 2006. Sven Creutzmann/Getty Images
Castro in Havana in September 2002. Several surgeries forced him to relinquish his duties temporarily to younger brother Raul in July 2006. CRISTOBAL HERRERA/AP
In footage from state-owned Cuban television, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visits an ailing Castro in September 2006. That July, it was announced that Castro was undergoing intestinal surgery. Castro resigned as President in February 2008, and his brother Raul took over permanently. AFP/Getty Images
Castro smiles before delivering a speech in Havana in September 2010. He had remained mostly out of sight after falling ill in 2006 but returned to the public light that year. Javier Galeano/AP
Pope Benedict XVI meets with Castro in Havana in March 2012. L'Osservatore Romano Vatican-Pool/Getty Images
In this picture provided by CubaDebate, Castro talks to Randy Perdomo, president of Cuba's University Students Federation, during a February meeting in Havana. Reuters/Landov
Castro visits with 19 cheese masters on Friday, July 3, 2015, in a rare trip outside his Havana home. From Estudio Revolución/Granma
Leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, left, visits with Fidel Castro during a meeting at Castro's home on February 14, 2016. TASS/Getty Images
