Hughes, Howard (Robard)

(born Dec. 24, 1905, Houston, Texas, U.S.—died April 5, 1976, in an airplane over southern Texas) U.S. manufacturer, aviator, and movie producer. He left college at age 17 to take control of his late father's Hughes Tool Company, which owned the patent to an oil-drilling tool; the company would form the future basis for Hughes's vast fortune. In the early 1930s he founded Hughes Aircraft Company. In 1935 he set a speed record of 352 mph (567 km/hr) in a plane he designed. In 1938 he flew around the world in a record 91 hours. In 1947 he built and piloted the only flight of a wooden eight-engine flying boat unflatteringly nicknamed “the Spruce Goose.” In the 1930s he produced several movies in Hollywood, and he owned RKO Pictures in the early 1950s. He held controlling stock in Trans World Airlines but was forced to sell it in 1966 following legal action. After about 1950 he became a famously eccentric recluse, and after his death his forged memoirs and his several wills became a source of scandal.

Hughes, Howard (Robard) (1905–76) industrialist, aviator, movie producer; born in Houston, Texas. In 1924 he inherited the Hughes Tool Company worth $650,000; eventually it became a multimillion dollar corporation, making him fabulously rich. He went to Hollywood and produced movies such as Hell's Angels (1930), Scarface (1932), and The Outlaw (1943); during these years he was involved with a succession of actresses; from 1948–55 he owned RKO, Hollywood's fifth largest studio. He had learned to fly, and from 1935 to 1938 he established three major speed records, receiving a Congressional Medal of Honor in 1941. Over the years, his business dealings led to much litigation and he became increasingly more eccentric and reclusive; from 1966 until his death he lived in "germ-free" hotel suites. In 1971 Clifford Irving claimed to have written an "authorized" biography of Hughes, but it was subsequently acknowledged as a fraud. Hughes's death led to a spate of lawsuits over attempts to establish his true will and heirs.

Hughes, Howard

(1905–1976) eccentric millionaire; lived as recluse. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1284]

See : Wealth