Howard Hughes poses for his last known photo... 15 years before his death
source: flickr
Howard Hughes didn’t pass away until April 5, 1976, when he was 70 years old, but due to his highly secretive and obsessive compulsive behavior, he locked himself away with no one but his doctors to keep him company until his addiction to prescription medication and old age took him. That’s what makes this last known photo of Hughes so fascinating, it was taken in 1961 - a solid 15 years before his death.
It’s not entirely clear why Hughes got himself cleaned up for this photo (previously he’d been living in a hotel and wearing nothing but a pink hotel napkin) but it likely had something to do with the creation of the Hughes Space and Communications Company, a combination of the Hughes Space and Communications Group and the Hughes Space Systems Division. Over the course of the next decade and a half, Hughes grew even more inward and saw his health decline at an astounding rate. He suppsedly gobbled Asprin, codeine and vicodin as well as chocolates and milk until he passed away.
source: flickr
Howard Hughes didn’t pass away until April 5, 1976, when he was 70 years old, but due to his highly secretive and obsessive compulsive behavior, he locked himself away with no one but his doctors to keep him company until his addiction to prescription medication and old age took him. That’s what makes this last known photo of Hughes so fascinating, it was taken in 1961 - a solid 15 years before his death.
It’s not entirely clear why Hughes got himself cleaned up for this photo (previously he’d been living in a hotel and wearing nothing but a pink hotel napkin) but it likely had something to do with the creation of the Hughes Space and Communications Company, a combination of the Hughes Space and Communications Group and the Hughes Space Systems Division. Over the course of the next decade and a half, Hughes grew even more inward and saw his health decline at an astounding rate. He suppsedly gobbled Asprin, codeine and vicodin as well as chocolates and milk until he passed away.