Labour leader Andrew Little said Mr Tizard died this afternoon.
Mr Tizard became Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister in 1974 under Sir Wallace Rowling, who succeeded Norm Kirk after his sudden death. But that Government lost power to Sir Robert Muldoon's National the following year in a campaign that featured the "Dancing Cossacks'' ad attacking the compulsory superannuation scheme that Labour had begun that year. Labour did not hold power again until 1984.
Mr Little passed on his condolences to Mr Tizard's family.
"Bob was one of a kind,'' Mr Little said. "Bob was a delight, he was great company. He had a mind like a steel trap - you were never left wondering what he thought, about anything.
"Michael Cullen once described him as being one of the most gifted people to have sat in Parliament, noting he was capable of making an 'absolutely superlative speech', without notes.''
Mr Tizard was the former husband of Dame Catherine Tizard (a mayor of Auckland and Governor-General) and father of former Labour MP Judith Tizard.
David Lange replaced Mr Tizard as deputy leader in 1979, before claiming the leadership from Rowling in 1983 and leading Labour to power for a fourth time.
Mr Tizard was Defence Minister in the latter part of the Fourth Labour Government and after a bitter debate within the party and country, he won cabinet approval for the Anzac frigates (Te Kaha and Te Mana) which form the backbone of the current navy. Mr Tizard argued that the frigates were essential to New Zealand's relationship with Australia.
Mr Tizard was first elected to Parliament in 1957 as MP for Tamaki but lost the seat at the 1960 election to Sir Robert Muldoon. He was then an MP from 1963 until 1990 when he retired in Otahuhu, then as MP for Pakuranga and then Panmure. Judith Tizard succeeded him in Panmure.
Mr Tizard met Dame Catherine when they were students at Auckland University where he was president of the students' association and where he went on to lecture in history. The couple had four children but divorced in 1980 before Dame Catherine entered public office. Mr Tizard had a son from a second marriage, to Mary Nacey.
They were divorced and he married for a third time, to a wartime sweetheart, Canadian Beryl Vignale. He was elected to the Auckland District Health board in 2007 at the age of 83.
Mr Tizard had a reputation for being very blunt, and having the occasional run-in with journalists. When he retired in 1990, Prime Minister Mike Moore described him as an "unforgettable character and personality'' who had managed New Zealand through the oil shock with calmness.
He spent 12 years in Government and 19 years in Opposition and said in his valedictory in 1990 that some of the most frustrating times were as a backbencher in Government "when people outside felt I was in the seat of power but I all felt was that someone was putting the boot in because however much members might think that they are part of the machinery of Government, few of us reach the position of being really able to influence and alter the major things that are happening''.
Mr Tizard was a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said Mr Tizard was "a serious parliamentarian with a very good grasp of the facts and with a real sense of history".
"The fact that he didn't suffer fools gladly did not diminish in any way the role he played in Parliament, whether in Government or Opposition.
"When up against him in Parliament, an opponent had to have his argument well researched and well prepared or he would quickly turn them into verbal toast.
"There is no doubt that Bob Tizard was a real political character, the calibre of which we have far too few today."
