Richard Boucher, who served for more than a decade as the spokesman for the US State Department and assistant secretary of state for public affairs, has died at age 73. 

He died on Friday at his home in northern Virginia after a battle with spindle-cell sarcoma, an aggressive form of cancer, according to his son.

Boucher had been the face of US foreign policy at the State Department podium across administrations throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, beginning in the George H W Bush presidency and continuing through Bill Clinton's and George W Bush's terms in office. 

Boucher served as the spokesman for secretaries of state James Baker, Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.