Hughes had been buying up vast tracts of land in the Mojave Desert outside Las Vegas for years, even becoming Nevada’s largest landowner. Finally, despairing of Californian taxes, he left to live in the Silver State.

Some of Hughes’ most famous eccentricities stem from his time in Nevada. He moved into the Desert Inn in Las Vegas in November 1966. The story goes that the hotel needed him to vacate his room on New Year’s Eve because another guest had booked it. Hughes simply bought the hotel for over $13 million ($127m/£97m in today’s money) – and stayed. Then he bought the casino opposite because its neon lights disturbed him.

In fact, over two years Hughes spent the modern equivalent of around $2.7 billion (£2bn) buying numerous Vegas hotels and casinos, becoming Nevada’s largest employer as well as the state's largest landowner. He bought the local TV station too, and reportedly ordered them to replay movies from the start if he missed part of one. On one occasion, he watched movies for months on end, barely eating or sleeping. For the next four years, he did not leave the Desert Inn.

Howard Hughes: his extraordinary life from high-flyer to hermit