biography
| name: |
Hughes, Howard (Robard)
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1905–76)
|
| biography:
| Millionaire businessman, film producer, film director, and aviator, born in Houston, Texas, USA. He studied at the California Institute of Technology, inheriting his father's machine tool company in 1923. In 1926 he ventured into films, producing Hell's Angels (1930), Scarface (1932), and The Outlaw (1941). He also founded his own aircraft company, designing, building, and flying aircraft, and broke several world air speed records (1935–8). His most famous aircraft, the ‘Spruce Goose’, was an oversized wooden sea-plane designed to carry 750 passengers, which was completed in 1947, but flew only once over a distance of one mile. Throughout his life he shunned publicity, and after severe injuries in an air crash (1946), his eccentricity increased, eventually becoming a recluse while still controlling his vast business interests from sealed-off hotel suites, and giving rise to endless rumour and speculation. In 1971 an ‘authorized’ biography was announced, but the authors were imprisoned for fraud, and the mystery surrounding him continued until his death. |
|
|
