Hughes

Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was a pioneering American aviator, engineer, industrialist, and film producer. He was widely known as a playboy and one of the wealthiest people in the world. more...

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He is famous for setting multiple world air-speed records, building the Hughes H-1 Racer and H-4 Hercules airplanes, producing the movies Hell's Angels and The Outlaw, owning and growing TWA, and for his increasingly eccentric behavior later in life.

Birth and upbringing

Hughes was born in Humble, Texas, on December 24, 1905, although it should be noted that his exact birthdate is debated by some biographers. According to NNDB.com, "Hughes claimed his birthday was Christmas Eve, but according to his baptismal records he was actually born on the more mundane date of September 24." His parents were Allene Gano Hughes and Howard R. Hughes Sr., who patented the tri-cone roller bit, which allowed rotary drilling for oil in previously inaccessible places. Howard R. Hughes Sr. founded Hughes Tool Company in 1909 to commercialize this invention.

Young Howard grew up under the strong influence of his mother, who was obsessed with protecting her son from all germs and diseases. From his father, Hughes inherited an interest in all things mechanical. At age 12, Hughes was photographed in the local newspaper as being the first boy in Houston to have a 'motorized' bicycle, which he had built himself.

Hughes' parents died within two years of each other, while he was still in his teens. Allene Hughes died at the age of 39 in March 1922 due to complications from an ectopic pregnancy. Less than two years later in January 1924, Howard Hughes Sr. died of a heart attack. Their untimely deaths apparently were the motivation that caused 19-year-old Howard to include the creation of a medical research laboratory in his 1925 will. It is also believed that the hospital was conceived as a tax shelter. There was no (legitimate) will discovered after his death. (see "Estate" below)

Because Howard Sr.'s will had not been updated since Allene's death, young Howard inherited 75 percent of his father's multi-million dollar fortune, which included the increasing amounts of cash flow generated from oil drilling royalties. Hughes dropped out of Rice University shortly after his father's death. In June 1925, at 19 years of age, Hughes married Ella Rice, and shortly thereafter they left Houston and moved to Hollywood where Hughes hoped to make a name for himself making movies.

Hollywood

He was at first dismissed by Hollywood insiders as a rich man's son. However, his first two films released in 1927, Everybody's Acting and Two Arabian Knights, were financial successes, the latter winning an Academy Award for Best Director of a Comedy Picture. The Racket in 1928 and The Front Page in 1931 were nominated for Academy Awards. Hughes spent a then-unheard-of $3.8 million of his own money to make Hell's Angels, which he wrote and directed and which became a smash hit, along with his 1932 film Scarface which he produced. Hughes' best-known film may be The Outlaw which made a star of Jane Russell, for whom Hughes designed a special bra. Scarface and The Outlaw received attention from industry censors; Scarface for its violence, The Outlaw due to Russell's revealing costumes.

Read more at Wikipedia.org