Howard Hughes Biography
Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic. Howard Hughes Biography forum. Mini Bio (1) Billionaire businessman, film producer, film director, and aviator, born in Humble, Texas just north of Houston. He studied at two prestigious institutions of higher learning: Rice University in Houston and California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. Inherited his father's machine tool company in 1923. Biography of the Texan who became the richest man in the world.
May 17, 2019 Howard Hughes (December 24, 1905–April 5, 1976) was an American businessman, movie producer, aviator, and philanthropist. Over the course of his life, he amassed a fortune of $1.5 billion. Though Hughes had many accomplishments in his professional career, he is now best remembered for his final years as an eccentric recluse. Howard Robard Hughes Sr. (September 9, 1869 – January 14, 1924) was an American businessman and inventor. He was the founder of Hughes Tool Company. He invented the 'Sharp–Hughes' rotary tri-cone rock drill bit during the Texas Oil Boom. He is best known as the father and namesake of Howard Hughes, the famous American business tycoon.
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Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work! Howard Hughes, in full Howard Robard Hughes, Jr., (born December 24, 1905, Houston, Texas, U.S.—died April 5, 1976, in an airplane over southern Texas), American manufacturer, aviator, and motion-picture producer and director who acquired enormous wealth and celebrity from his various ventures but was perhaps better known for his eccentricities, especially his reclusiveness.
Why is Howard Hughes significant?
Extremely versatile, Howard Hughes was a successful manufacturer, aviator, and film producer and director, and he acquired enormous wealth and celebrity through his various ventures. He set numerous aviation records, and his Hughes Aircraft Company built such notable planes as the Spruce Goose. However, he was perhaps better known for his eccentricities, especially his reclusiveness.
What was Howard Hughes’s early life like?
Howard Hughes was born in 1905, and four years later his father invented a rotary bit for oil well drilling that made the family extremely wealthy. Hughes showed a talent for engineering, but, after his mother (1922) and father (1924) died, he quit school to run Hughes Tool Company, which became a multibillion-dollar venture.
What was Howard Hughes like?
Howard Hughes was intelligent, ambitious, and adventurous. He was also a loner. In 1950 Hughes went into complete seclusion, and his mental health declined. Typically living in luxury hotels, he sought absolute privacy and was rarely seen by anyone except a few male aides. He often worked for days without sleep in a black-curtained room.
How did Howard Hughes die?
In Howard Hughes’s later years he became emaciated and deranged from the effects of a meagre diet and an excess of drugs. In 1976, at age 70, he died in flight from Acapulco, Mexico, to Houston, Texas, to seek medical treatment. Legal battles over his estate ensued, and several “wills” were declared to be forgeries.
Early life
In 1909 Hughes’s father, Howard R. Hughes, Sr., invented a rotary bit for oil well drilling that made the family extremely wealthy. The younger Hughes early showed a talent for engineering, and he later studied at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, and at the Rice Institute of Technology, Houston. During this time, both his mother (1922) and father (1924) died. Hughes quit school and took control of his father’s business, Hughes Tool Company, in Houston. By the time he sold the company in 1972, it had become a multibillion-dollar venture.
Hollywood
In 1926 Hughes moved to Hollywood, where he became known for making films that ran both over budget and afoul of censors. He produced several movies—notably the Academy Award-winning Two Arabian Knights (1927)—before beginning work on Hell’s Angels in 1927. Numerous problems plagued the shoot. Originally intended as a silent film, it had to be reshot as a talkie. In the process, Greta Nissen was replaced by Jean Harlow. Several directors also left the production, and eventually Hughes took over. The film was finally released in 1930. While the storyline—two British pilots fall in love with a socialite during World War I—proved uninspired, the film’s stunning aerial sequences were considered groundbreaking. The drama was a box-office hit, though it failed to recoup its production costs, which were in excess of $3 million.
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.
Although Hughes never directed another film, he continued to work as a producer. In 1948 he bought a controlling interest in RKO Pictures Corporation but sold the shares in 1953. The following year he bought the whole company only to sell it again in 1955. He remained chairman of the board of RKO until 1957, when he left the film industry. That year Hughes, who had relationships with a number of prominent actresses, married Jean Peters; the couple divorced in 1971.
Aviation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Las Vegas
While making films, Hughes was also involved in aviation. In 1932 he founded the Hughes Aircraft Company in Culver City, California. On September 12, 1935, in an airplane of his own design, he established the world’s landplane speed record of 352.46 miles (567.23 km) per hour. On January 19, 1937, in the same craft, he averaged 332 miles per hour in lowering the transcontinental flight-time record to 7 hours 28 minutes. Flying a Lockheed 14, he circled Earth in a record 91 hours 14 minutes in July 1938. The following year Hughes bought a share of Trans World Airlines (TWA), and he eventually acquired 78 percent of its stock.
During World War II, Hughes’s focus turned to military aircraft, and his company had several government contracts, notably for the Hughes XF-11 and the H-4 Hercules. The planes ran over schedule, however, as did his movies, and were not completed until after the war. In 1946 he flew the Hughes XF-11, a reconnaissance plane, on its maiden test flight and suffered a nearly fatal accident. The Hercules, an eight-engine wooden flying boat intended to carry 750 passengers, was not finished until 1947. That year Hughes was brought before a Senate committee investigating war profiteering. In the highly publicized hearing, he sparred with Sen. Owen Brewster and ultimately prevailed. Hughes subsequently piloted (1947) the Hercules, popularly known as the Spruce Goose, on its only flight—1 mile (1.6 km).
Always something of a loner, Hughes went into complete seclusion in 1950. However, in 1953 he established the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, using profits from the Hughes Aircraft Company. According to Hughes, the centre was established to explore “the genesis of life itself.” It became a leading biological and medical research institute and was one of the world’s largest and most powerful charities. The following decade he refused to appear in court to answer antitrust charges concerning TWA and thus lost control of the business by default. In 1966 he sold his shares for more than $500 million.
The following year Hughes bought the Desert Inn, a resort casino in Las Vegas. He reportedly made the purchase after being told to vacate its penthouse. This sparked a buying spree that included other casinos and large swathes of undeveloped land; in the 1950s he had purchased property outside Las Vegas, and it would later become the planned community known as Summerlin. Hughes subsequently played an influential role in Las Vegas’s development, changing the city’s image—which was strongly linked to the Mafia—and bringing more corporate investment.
- born
- December 24, 1905
Houston, Texas
- died
- April 5, 1976 (aged 70)
Texas
Born: December 24, 1905
Houston, Texas
Died: April 5, 1976
Houston, Texas
American entrepreneur and inventor
Howard Hughes was a colorful and flashy businessman and inventor who used an inherited fortune to achieve a national reputation in the motion picture and aviation industries.
Childhood
Howard Hughes Biography Fraud
Howard Robard Hughes was born in Houston, Texas, on December 24, 1905, the only child of Howard Robard Hughes and Alene Gano Hughes. His father earned millions by inventing special machinery for the oil industry. He attended private schools in California and Massachusetts and was very inventive as a child. At the age of twelve he made a radio transmitter out of an electric doorbell, and later he made a self-starting motor for his bicycle. At the age of fourteen he made his first airplane flight.
Hughes then attended the Rice Institute in Houston, and the California Institute of Technology. His mother died when Hughes was sixteen and his father just two years later, leaving him an orphan with an estate worth $871,000 and a patent (right to ownership) for a drill bit used in most oil and gas drilling that brought large revenues to the family's Hughes Tool Company, manufacturers of the bit.
The movie business
Hughes left school to take control of the company, using its profits to finance a variety of projects, which he hoped would make him a legend in his own time. In 1925, at age twenty, Hughes married Ella Rice and moved to Los Angeles, California, (they separated in 1928). In 1927 Hughes entered the motion picture business and produced such films as Scarface (1932), and The Outlaw (1941), and the box-office smash Hell's Angels (1930). He discovered actors Jean Harlow (1911–1937) and Paul Muni and made Jane Russell (1921–) a well-known star.
While living in Hollywood, California, the multimillionaire movie producer led a relatively quiet lifestyle. He lived in small apartments or rented homes and rarely participated in Hollywood's social world of the rich and famous.
Aviation
In 1928 Hughes obtained a pilot's license. His interest in aviation (flying) led him to found the Hughes Aircraft Company in Glendale, California, in 1932 and to design, build, and fly record-breaking airplanes. He set a world speed record in 1935, transcontinental (crossing a continent) speed records in 1936 and 1937, and a world flight record in 1938. Hughes was honored with the Harmon Trophy and a New York City ticker-tape parade after his world flight. He was awarded the Collier Trophy in 1939, the Octave Chanute Award in 1940, and a Congressional Medal in 1941.
In 1939 Hughes began work on an experimental military aircraft, and in 1942 he received a contract to design and build the world's largest plane, a wooden seaplane, later nicknamed the 'Spruce Goose.' It was supposed to serve as a troop carrier in World War II (1939–45).
Hughes suffered a nervous breakdown in 1944 and was critically injured in the crash of his experimental military plane in 1946, but he recovered and flew the huge seaplane the next year. As a result of these aviation activities, Hughes became a popular public figure because his image represented the traditional American qualities of individuality, daring, and imagination. He was named to the Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973.
The Hughes Aircraft Company became a major defense contractor after World War II. As the profits of the company increased, Hughes became obsessed with avoiding taxes and in 1953 created the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as a sophisticated tax shelter to which he transferred the profits of the aircraft company. In 1956 Hughes loaned $205,000 to future President Richard Nixon's (1913–1994) brother Donald in a successful effort to influence an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruling on the medical institute. Hughes made secret contributions of $100,000 to the successful Nixon presidential campaign in 1970 and was able to prevent enforcement of the Tax Reform Act against the medical institute. Hughes continued to use profits from the tool company for other ventures, including the creation of Trans World Airlines (TWA), in which he had begun investing in 1939.
Life in seclusion
In 1950 Hughes began a strange life of isolation, beginning a lifestyle which would ultimately turn him into a recluse (one who retreats from the world), although he did marry actress Jean Peters in 1957, divorcing her in 1971. Hughes refused to appear in court or even give a statement, and in a 1963 antitrust case over his ownership of 78 percent of TWA, his failure to appear resulted in a ruling that led him to sell his holdings in 1966. The $566 million received from this sale was invested by Hughes in hotels, gambling casinos,
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From this point on Hughes's career accomplishments were minimal. His obsession to control every aspect of his environment turned him into a recluse. He was seen only by a few associates and remained isolated from the operations of his company. In 1970 he left the United States, and moved 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 (thin from starvation) from the effects of his diet and the excessive use of drugs.
Hughes's concern for privacy ultimately caused controversy, resulting in a scandal over his supposed memoirs (writings of personal experiences) by author Clifford Irving that sold for $1 million before being proven to be fake. The Hughes conglomerate (a group of diverse businesses) became involved with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and in 1975, built an undersea exploratory drilling ship which was actually used by the CIA to attempt to recover a sunken Soviet (Russian) 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, a scandal that ultimately lead to the resignation of President Nixon in 1973.
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 later declared to be forgeries.
For More Information
Bartlett, Donald L., and James B. Steele. The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes. 1979.
Drosnin, Michael. Citizen Hughes. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985.
Hack, Richard. Hughes, the Private Diaries, Memos, and Letters. Beverly Hills, CA: New Millenium Press, 2001.
Howard Hughes Biography
Keats, John. Howard Hughes. New York: Random House, 1972.
Howard Hughes Biography Book
Phelan, James. Howard Hughes: The Hidden Years. New York: Random House, 1976.