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Howard Arvin Hughes, Jr.
(December 24, 1905 – April 5,
1976) was, in his time, an
aviator, engineer,
industrialist, film producer
and director, a playboy, an
eccentric, and one of the
wealthiest people in the world.
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 expanding TWA, and
for his debilitating eccentric
behavior in later life.
 Early
years
Hughes was born in Humble,
Texas, on December 24, 1905.
Hughes claimed his birthday was
Christmas Eve. Although some
biographers debate his exact
birth date, (according to
NNDB.com, it was most likely
"the more mundane date of
September 24." His parents were
Allene Stone Gano Hughes (a
descendant of Catherine of
Valois, Dowager Queen of
England, by second husband Owen
Tudor) 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.
Hughes 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 supposedly
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 deaths apparently
inspired 19-year-old Hughes to
include the creation of a
medical research laboratory in
his 1925 will. It is also
believed that the research
laboratory was conceived as a
tax shelter.
Because Howard Sr.'s will had
not been updated since Allene's
death, young Hughes 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 age 19, 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.
Death
and burial
Howard Hughes' gravestone
Hughes Family Gravesite at
Glenwood CemeteryHughes died on
April 5, 1976, while on an
airplane owned by Robert Graf,
en route from his penthouse in
Acapulco, Mexico to The
Methodist Hospital in Houston.
It has also been argued that he
died before leaving Mexico. His
reclusive activities and drug
use had made him practically
unrecognizable; his hair,
beard, fingernails, and
toenails had grown grossly
long, his once-strapping 6'4"
frame now weighed barely 90
lbs, and the FBI had to resort
to fingerprints to identify the
body.
A subsequent autopsy noted
kidney failure as the cause of
death. Hughes was in extremely
poor physical condition at the
time of his death; X-rays
revealed broken-off hypodermic
needles still embedded in his
arms and severe malnutrition.
The first doctor to examine him
diagnosed the cause of Hughes'
death as neglect. While his
kidneys were damaged, his other
internal organs were deemed
perfectly healthy.
Hughes is buried in the
Glenwood Cemetery in
Houston.
Source : Some
of the information on this page
came from a Wikipedia
article and is
licensed under the GNU
Documentation License.
©2008
www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Howard
Hughes- Generator -
Biography