Clint Hill, the US Secret Service agent who threw himself onto John F. Kennedy’s limousine to try to save the former US president from his assassin’s bullets, has died aged 93.

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Hill boasts an illustrious career serving as protective detail to the Kennedy family and five other US presidents. Announcing his death, the Secret Service praised Clint Hill’s “unwavering dedication and exceptional service” to the Kennedy family and four other presidents.

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How did Clint Hill die?

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While the Secret Service announced that Hill died at his home in California aged 93, an exact cause of death has not been disclosed.

Who was Clint Hill?

Clint Hill was a former Secret Service agent who served under five United States presidents: John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford.

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He was part of first lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s protective detail in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963 when the president was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in an open limousine en route to a luncheon at the Dallas Trade Mart.

Hill, who was riding in the Secret Service car immediately behind the presidential limousine, leapt to action when he heard what at the time seemed to him to be a firecracker. Jumping across the bumper, he covered the Kennedy's with his body till the hospital, where president Kennedy was declared dead. He was honoured for his actions.

The tragic yet heroic moment as he leapt to the president’s aid was immortalised in a news agency picture.

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Hill remained assigned to Mrs Kennedy until the 1964 Presidential elections, and retired from Secret Service at the age of 43.

Subsequently, he wrote several books, including "Five Days in November" about the Kennedy assassination, which he said had been "seared into my mind and soul."

"In the blink of an eye, everything changed," he wrote. "Those days remain the defining period of my life."

(With inputs from agencies)