WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The top FBI official who was the secret informant Deep Throat in the 1970s Watergate scandal said Tuesday he was "proud" of his actions, which led to the fall of then-president Richard M. Nixon. Mark Felt, who was associate director of the FBI when he began helping two Washington Post journalists break open the legendary Watergate case, said he never considered himself a hero but was just "trying to help."

"I think somebody had to work on the inside," he said of his role helping reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein pursue the Watergate story into the Nixon White House.

"They had to be honest and they had to be reliable and if I could do that and fit into that category, that was fine," he told the CNN Larry King Live show in a rare interview since admitting he was Deep Throat.

Felt, 92 and in poor health, revealed last April that he was the shadowy informant of late-night meetings in dark garages made famous in the book and movie "All the President's Men." He had kept his role secret for 33 years, not even telling his family. It was with Felt's crucial input that Woodward and Bernstein could write a series of investigative scoops about the Nixon administration's involvement in the June 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at Washington's Watergate complex.

The scandal and the White House's attempted cover-up ultimately led to Richard Nixon becoming the first U.S. president to resign in disgrace, in August 1974. Asked by King if he liked being called Deep Throat -- the name Woodward and Bernstein gave him in their book on the scandal -- Felt replied, "In some ways I do." "I'm proud of everything Deep Throat did -- yes, I like being related to him."

However, the career FBI agent said he did not expect his actions would help lead to Nixon's downfall. But nor was he sad about Nixon's quitting, he told King. "I wasn't sad. I just realized he had to do it."

Felt, who has just published a book about his life, "A G-Man's Life: The FBI, Being 'Deep Throat,' and the Struggle for Honor in Washington," insists on referring to his alter ego in the third person.

"He's always said that Deep Throat is a personality that was created by Bob Woodward, a name that was created. He likes to say that he's the person that they called Deep Throat," his daughter Joan Felt said on the King show.

When asked by King how he would like to be remembered, Felt though downplayed his role and the Deep Throat image.

"I want to be remembered as a government employee who did his best to help everybody. I would like a reputation of trying to help people," he said.