How Howard Hughes went from eccentric billionaire to addict who died with 5 needles in arms

He was the eccentric billionaire who flew round the world and romanced Hollywood’s most beautiful women.

Today it’s 45 years since pilot, engineer and film director Howard Hughes died from kidney failure, weighing just over 6st and unrecognisable after years of being a recluse and drug user.

The Texan, who married three times in his 70 years on Earth, was said to have a net worth of $1.5 billion – that’s roughly the equivalent of $6.4 billion in today’s world.

Here NADINE LINGE reveals 10 fascinating facts about Hughes, who was famously played by Leonardo DiCaprio in 2004 movie The Aviator…

1. Born in 1905 in Texas, Hughes was a millionaire before he was 20. His dad had invented a drill part that revolutionised the oil industry. When Hughes Sr died in 1924, his son inherited his money, dropped out of university and went to Hollywood to produce films.2. He was also a pilot who founded the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932. He set several aviation records including circumnavigating the globe in three days, 19 hours and 17 minutes.

3. Designed for use in World War Two, his most ­famous aircraft was the Spruce Goose, then the largest ever built with a wingspan of 320ft. But it wasn’t ready until 1947, by which time the war was over. Flown just once, Hughes spent millions keeping it in storage until his death.

4. He suffered several plane crashes, most ­notably in a military prototype in 1946. He was given codeine for his injuries and became addicted to the medication. While recovering in hospital, Hughes decided he didn’t like the bed – so designed a new one that became the forerunner of the modern hospital bed.

5. His Hollywood career allowed him to meet and date the top beauties of the day including Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner, Bette Davis, Ginger Rogers and Olivia de Havilland. He once ­landed a plane on a golf course to woo keen golfer Katharine Hepburn.

6. Hughes used his engineering skills to design a bra for curvy Jane Russell that would enhance her ­assets on the poster for his 1943 film The Outlaw. The racy movie made waves with Hollywood censors but was a hit with American GIs.

7. By the late 1950s, he was in the grip of obsessive compulsive disorder. He holed up in LA hotel rooms for months, watching films on repeat while naked apart from a pink ­napkin, only ate chocolate bars and chicken and used tissues to touch everything, fearing germs.

8. Hughes moved to Las Vegas in 1966 and took up residence at the Desert Inn hotel. When the owner tried to evict him, he simply bought the place along with several other hotels and a TV station so he could watch old films through the night. It was discovered the curtains had rotted as they had never been opened.

9. He was briefly obsessed with Baskin-Robbins’ ­banana nut ice cream and learning it had been discontinued, ordered the firm to make a batch of 350 gallons – only to then declare he preferred French vanilla.

10. By the end, living in hotels and dealing with a pain disorder due to his plane crashes, he only had his finger and toenails trimmed once a year and suffered malnutrition. After his death X-rays found five broken-off needles in his arms from injecting codeine.