HOWARD HUGHES

1905–1976

US billionaire Howard Hughes turned his eclectic interests into legendary business achievements, gaining renown as a movie producer, pioneering aircraft designer and manufacturer, and an aviator.

The son of a successful inventor, Howard Robard Hughes Jr. showed an aptitude for engineering as a child, building his own radio transmitter and motorized bicycle by the age of 12. In 1924, his father died, leaving him the family tool manufacturing business and a significant fortune. Hughes decided to move to Hollywood and invest his money in the movie industry. Over the next two decades, he produced a number of box-office hits, garnering both Oscar and Academy Award nominations.

Interested in aviation since childhood—he had taken his first flight aged 14—Hughes obtained his pilot’s license in 1928 and founded the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932. Designing and flying his own planes, he set a series of world and transcontinental speed records.

Hughes experienced mental health problems, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, and by the 1950s was increasingly reclusive. In 1953, he set up the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, one of the world’s primary charities and a leader in medical research.