Background

Howard Robard Hughes Jr. was born in Houston, Texas, the United States, on December 24, 1905, to Howard Robard Hughes and Allene Gano Hughes. Allene was a prominent Dallas socialite. Hughes’s father, Howard Robard Hughes Sr., invented a rotary bit for oil well drilling that made the family extremely wealthy. His mother died when Hughes was 16 and his father when he was 18, leaving him an orphan.

Education

Hughes was an inventive child and took to mathematics and engineering. When his mother denied him a motorcycle, he motorized his bicycle with a car starter and batteries. When his father said he could have any present, Hughes chose a ride on a Curtiss Seaplane, which sparked his love of aviation that would continue for the rest of his life. During his youth, he showed a great inclination toward engineering and built Houston’s first radio transmitter and a motorized bicycle before he was 12. He showed interest in maths, flying, and also took flying lessons at 14.

Hughes grew up a rich man's son in the 1920s, going to private boarding schools and at one point receiving an allowance of $5,000 per week. Until 1921, Howard attended Fessenden School in Massachusetts. Hughes’ parents then enrolled him in the Thatcher School, an elite boarding school in Ojai, California in 1921. He then began attending aeronautical engineering courses at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. Just a year later, his mother passed away and he returned to Houston with his father. In Houston Hughes started taking classes at the Rice Institute, but ultimately dropped out. In 1924, Howard Hughes Sr. died from a fatal heart attack. At the young age of 18, Howard Hughes Jr. inherited both his father’s fortune and his Texas-based, namesake tool company. Hughes quit school and took control of his father’s business, Hughes Tool Company, in Houston.

Career

After the death of his father, Howard Hughes received 75 percent of his father's million-dollar estate (the other 25 percent went to relatives). Hughes immediately disagreed with his relatives over the running of Hughes Tool Company, but being only 18 years old, Hughes could not do anything about it. He would not legally be considered an adult until he reached the age of 21. Frustrated but determined, Hughes went to court and got a judge to grant him legal adulthood. He then bought out his relatives' shares of the company. At age 19, Hughes became the full owner of the company.

In 1926 Hughes moved to Hollywood, where he became known for making films that ran both over budget and afoul of censors. Hughes quickly became enchanted with movie-making. He discovered actors Jean Harlow and Paul Muni and made Jane Russell a well-known star. Hughes then produced a series of movies, notably Scarface (1932), which was based on the life of Al Capone. The shoot was marred by frequent arguments between Hughes and director Howard Hawks. In addition, its release was delayed by censors at the Hays Office, who demanded various changes to the violent and brutal film. In the end, it was a huge hit, and Paul Muni, who was cast in the title role, became a major star.

Hughes later produced and directed The Outlaw (1943), about Pat Garrett, Doc Holliday, and Billy the Kid. However, most of the attention was focused on newcomer Jane Russell, whom Hughes cast as a love interest and outfitted in highly provocative clothing. He designed a special brassiere to accentuate her assets, though the actress later stated that it was never used during filming. Unsurprisingly, Russell’s wardrobe ran afoul of censors, and the lengthy battle between Hughes and the Hays Office generated much publicity, helping make The Outlaw a huge success.

Hughes continued to produce movies while he pursued an interest in aviation. He seemed to be driven to prove his excellence in whatever field he entered. In 1928 Hughes obtained a pilot's license. His interest in aviation led him to found the Hughes Aircraft Company in Glendale in 1932 and to design, build, and fly record-breaking airplanes. Besides designing and building planes, he risked his own life several times testing planes and setting world air-speed records in the mid- the to late 1930s.

Hughes became a well known public figure, popular for his aviation and movie heroics. He seemed to embody the traditional American qualities of individuality, daring, and ingenuity. His aircraft company became a major defense contractor after World War II (1939-1945), and as the profits of his company increased, Hughes became obsessed with ways to avoid paying taxes on his huge profits. For years, Hughes labored on this massive wooden seaplane, which was intended to transport troops and materials across the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. Completed in 1947, it was flown only once and never went into production, however, Hughes maintained the H-4 in a climate-controlled hangar until his death in 1976. It is currently housed in the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.

After a terrible plane crash in 1946, Hughes began to retreat from the world. He bought part of RKO Pictures in 1948, but he never visited the studio. In the 1960s, he lived on the top floor of the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, Nevada, and conducted all of his business from his hotel suite.

Hughes refused to appear in court or even give a deposition, and in a 1963 antitrust case over his ownership of 78 percent of TWA, his failure to appear resulted in a default ruling that led him to sell his holdings in 1966. The $566 million received from this sale was invested by Hughes in Las Vegas hotels, gambling casinos, golf courses, a television station, an airport, and land. In 1972 the Hughes Tool Division, the basis of the Hughes fortune, was sold. The holding company was renamed Summa Corporation and its headquarters relocated to Las Vegas, where Hughes had moved his residence.

From this point in his career, Hughes' accomplishments were minimal. His obsession to control every aspect of his environment turned him into a recluse seen by a few associates and isolated from the operations of his company. In 1970 he left the United States, abruptly moving from place to place - the Bahamas, Nicaragua, Canada, England, and Mexico.

He always arrived unannounced in luxury hotels and took extreme precautions to ensure privacy. Hughes saw only a few male aides, worked for days without sleep in a black-curtained room and became emaciated from the effects of a meager diet and the excessive use of drugs. His concern for privacy ultimately caused controversy, resulting in a scandal over his supposed memoirs by author Clifford Irving that sold for $1 million before being proven fraudulent. The Hughes conglomerate became involved with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and in 1975 it built an undersea exploratory drilling ship that was actually for use by the CIA to attempt to recover a sunken Soviet submarine. The company retained a Washington, D.C., public relations firm that was also involved with the CIA, which led the Hughes corporation to become involved in the Watergate affair.

Howard Hughes did not like people telling him what to do. On Thanksgiving weekend 1966, Hughes rolled into Las Vegas in his two-car private train. He arrived at the Desert Inn Hotel, reportedly walking alongside a stretcher to avoid attention. Eventually, Moe Dalitz, owner of the Desert Inn, personally asked Hughes to leave so that the hotel could prepare the top-floor suites for holiday high rollers. Instead of leaving, Hughes bought the hotel. He went on to buy several other Las Vegas hotels, shaping the future of the Strip. He reportedly even bought a local TV station so he could indulge in his insomnia with some late-night movies.

Hughes died on April 5, 1976, on an airplane that was taking him from Acapulco, Mexico, to a hospital in Houston for medical attention. Hughes was controversial even after his death. Several wills appeared, one of which was found in the Mormon church in Salt Lake City, Utah, but all were declared to be forgeries after protracted litigation.

Achievements

• 

  Howard Hughes was a flamboyant entrepreneur who used an inherited fortune to achieve a national reputation in the motion picture and aviation industries, remaining in the news in later years because of his paranoid concern for privacy. Over the course of his life, Hughes amassed a fortune of $1.5 billion.
  
  Hughes’ aviation exploits made him a popular figure and he made international news when he set the world speed record in 1935, transcontinental speed records in 1936 and 1937, and a world flight record in 1938. He was named to the Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973. Hughes was included in Flying Magazine's list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation, ranked at No. 25.
  
  Hughes was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1939, in recognition of his achievements in advancing the science of aviation. He was presented with the Octave Chanute Award in 1940 for an outstanding contribution made by him as a pilot or test personnel to the advancement of arts, science and technology, and aeronautics.
  
  Hughes is perhaps best remembered for his contributions to the American film industry and for his eccentric behavior. His film archive - a collection of over 200 works - is now part of the Academy Film Archive.
  
  In 2004, Hughes' life returned to the spotlight with the feature film The Aviator, which depicted his early days. Leonardo DiCaprio played the billionaire as a dashing, troubled young man. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Hughes.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Behind The Rising Sun

    (The friendship between an American living in Japan, his b...)

    1943
  • Scarface

    (Generally regarded to be the best of the classic gangster...)

    1932
  • The Front Page

    (Hildy Johnson, a newspaper reporter, is engaged to Peggy ...)

    1931
  • The Outlaw

    (Newly appointed sheriff Pat Garrett is pleased when his o...)

    1943
  • Sky Devils

    (Wilkie and Mitchell, trying to desert their draft into th...)

    1932
  • Hell's Angels

    (Brothers Monte and Ray leave Oxford to join the Royal Fly...)

    1930

Politics

Howard Hughes wasn't loyal to one political party over another. Instead, he used his enormous wealth and clout to support whatever project or ideology struck his fancy, and he wasn't above bribing people to get his way. Hughes became involved in politics and was a secret supporter of Richard Nixon. In 1956 the Hughes Tool Company provided a $205,000 loan to Nixon Incorporated, a company run by Richard's brother, Donald Nixon. The money was never paid back. Soon after the money was paid the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reversed a previous decision to grant tax-exempt status to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The Hughes loan to Donald Nixon was revealed during the Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson during the 1960 presidential campaign. Richard Nixon initially denied the loan but later was forced to admit that this money had been given to his brother. It was claimed that this story helped John F. Kennedy defeat Nixon in the election.

Howard Hughes, who was always distrustful and suspicious, grew even more paranoid during the "Red Scare" of the 1950s. He was convinced that communism posed a tremendous threat to national security and that communist infiltrators were living in the United States. He frantically wrote articles on the subject that were sent to newspapers for publication.

Views

After the tragic early passing of his parents, Hughes became obsessed with science and health. In 1953, he launched the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The research facility also operated as something of a tax shelter for Hughes. Regardless, it went on to become a massive player in the field of biomedicine. It is the world’s second-largest medical research foundation in terms of financial resources, with $18.2 billion in endowments.

Hughes had a strong aversion to black people. For many years he had a private screening room at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios in Hollywood where he would watch movies by himself at night. In 1958 he found out that the cast of Porgy and Bess (1959), an all-black musical being made on the lot, was using the screening room each afternoon to watch the footage that had been shot the previous day. Horrified that blacks used the same room he did - and that some may even have sat in the same seat he did - he shut down the screening room, left the Goldwyn lot, and, for the remainder of his life, never returned to it. Hughes was also known as a rabid anti-Semite but specific examples of him acting on his feelings are scarce; like many ultra-conservative anti-Communists of the post-World War II era, Hughes believed that many Jews were either Communists or sympathetic to Communism.

Quotations: "Every man has his price or a guy like me couldn't exist."

"I'm not a paranoid deranged millionaire. Goddamit, I'm a billionaire."

"We don't have a monopoly. Anyone who wants to dig a well without a Hughes bit can always use a pick and shovel."

Personality

Hughes was a loner in his youth. With one notable exception, he never really had any friends. As early as the 1930s, Hughes displayed signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder, which only worsened with time. The numerous aircraft crashes left him in pain and physically dependent. He became reclusive and eccentric towards his end. It has variously been hypothesized that his crazed behavior in his later reclusive years was caused by brain damage resulting from a series of accidents; Obsessive-compulsive disorder; bipolar disorder; or even paranoid-schizophrenia.

Restauranteur Dave Chasen reported that Hughes ate the same dinner all the time: a triple glass of tomato juice, a salad, a thin butterfly steak, and coffee. Chasen also observed that, like most Hollywood gourmets, he was on the phone constantly. In public, he would often speak with his hand covering his mouth, for fear of being lip-read.

Hughes was an avid golfer and wanted to play on the golf tour, but gave it up because Bobby Jones told him that he couldn't win.

On June 11, 1936, Hughes was driving on Wilshire Boulevard when he struck and killed a pedestrian named Gabriel Meyer. Hughes was arrested and charged with manslaughter. Despite the fact that pedestrians had the right-of-way in Los Angeles and that he had broken the law through reckless driving, Hughes was released without charge.

Hughes was Stan Lee's inspiration for Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man. Like Hughes, Stark inherited a business from his father. As a tribute to Hughes, Tony Stark's father was named Howard Stark.

Before his death, Hughes lived as a recluse, and Albert R. Broccoli (the producer of the James Bond franchise) used his reclusiveness from the public as a model for the character Willard Whyte in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Hughes was a fan of the James Bond films, and he kept a 16mm print of the film as a part of his private collection. Broccoli also gave him 16mm print films of all the earlier Bond-films.

Interests

• Politicians

  Richard Nixon

• Sport & Clubs

  Golf

Connections

In 1925 he married Houston debutante Ella Rice in an arranged marriage that some of his relatives had demanded in exchange for selling their shares to him. In 1957, he married actress Jean Peters and they remained together until ultimately divorcing in 1971. However, the billionaire celebrity was better known for his relationships with the leading actresses of the day, such as Katharine Hepburn, Ava Gardner, Bette Davis, Ginger Rogers, and many others.

Father:

Howard Hughes

Hughes left school to take control of the company after his father's death, using its profits to finance a variety of projects.

Mother:

Allene Gano Hughes

When Howard was 17, his mother passed away after suffering an ectopic pregnancy.

former spouse:

Ella Botts Rice Winston

Hughes divorced Rice in 1929 and embarked on the first of many affairs with Hollywood starlets.

former spouse:

Jean Peters

Hughes was apparently an incredibly possessive husband, ordering security guards to trail Peters on set and threatening male friends who were in her life. The couple divorced in 1971 after 14 years together, with Peters awarded $70,000 a year in lifetime alimony, adjusted for inflation.

former girlfriend:

Katharine Hepburn

In 1938 Hughes began living with Katharine Hepburn although he continued to date other people. Later, in her autobiography, Me: Stories of My Life, she pointed out that her "love for him had turned to water."

former girlfriend:

Ava Gardner

Gardner became a friend of businessman and aviator Howard Hughes in the early to mid-1940s, and the relationship lasted into the 1950s. Gardner stated in her autobiography, Ava: My Story, that she was never in love with Hughes, but he was in and out of her life for about 20 years.

Ava Gardner recalled Howard Hughes as a great lover, referring to him as the man who "taught me that making love didn't always have to be rushed."

former girlfriend:

Bette Davis

Davis entered into a relationship with Hughes believing that her marriage was all but over, though neither she nor her husband had made moves toward a separation. Bette and Howard attempted to be discreet, renting a cottage in Malibu for their dinner dates.

Bette was annoyed that Howard had not offered financial help. She would have to borrow money from Warner Bros. in order to get out of her marriage, and no marriage to Hughes would follow.

former girlfriend:

Ginger Rogers

Hughes had first proposed to Rogers in the summer of 1936 after he had declared interest in Katharine Hepburn but before their relationship began in earnest. According to Rogers, Hughes and she continued to date sporadically, but she wasn’t exactly waiting by the phone. For the next three-plus years, Hughes would be involved with Hepburn and others.

Hughes and Ginger Rogers' on-again/off-again love affair lasted years, with Hughes gifting her a ­5-carat emerald engagement ring again in 1940 and telling her he would build her a mansion. Soon, though, he demanded that Rogers be available for him whenever he desired, and "she [began] to suspect he was having her followed and that her phone calls were being surveilled."

After Hughes blamed Rogers for a car accident she wasn't even in - she had refused to accompany him to a dental appointment, and he was so angry about this that he crashed his car - she finally broke it off.

Friend:

Jack Real

Real met Hughes while working at Lockheed. They became so close that from 1957 to 1976, the year Hughes died at 70, Real was his friend, confidant, and personal advisor. Hughes appointed Real as senior vice president of aviation for the Howard Hughes Corp., formerly Hughes Tool Co., in 1971. The two men lived together and traveled abroad from 1972 to 1976.

After Hughes’ death, Real became president of the troubled Hughes Helicopters, accomplishing over four years one of business history’s most impressive corporate turn-around efforts. While heading the company, he also guided the development of the AH-64 Apache program for the military.

References

• Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness
  1979
• Howard Hughes: The Great Aviator
  2004
• The Passions of Howard Hughes
  2004
• Howard Hughes: Power, Paranoia, and Palace Intrigue, Revised and Expanded
  2020
• Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters: The Definitive Biography of the First American Billionaire
  2001