Video: Jim Ryan appears on “Chicago Tonight” in a 2002 candidate forum when he was running for governor.

Jim Ryan served as Illinois attorney general for eight years starting in 1995. He twice ran, unsuccessfully, for Illinois governor. He died on Sunday after what his family said were “several lengthy illnesses.” He was 76.

Ryan took pride in what he called “professionalizing” the attorney general’s office and was once dubbed “the most effective attorney general in state history” by a downstate newspaper.

He also endured his share of tragedy, including the deaths of two of his six children and his own health battles, including beating cancer three times as well as coming back from heart surgery.