Editing Howard Hughes (section)

===Physical and mental decline===
[[File:1954 Chrysler New Yorker Howard Hughes rear.JPG|thumb|Hughes had this 1954 [[Chrysler New Yorker]] equipped with an aircraft-grade air filtration system that took up most of the trunk.]]

Hughes was widely considered eccentric<ref>{{cite web |first=Alex III|last=Taylor |url=https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1997/10/13/232490/index.htm |title=Wacko, junkie – and a great businessman despite all his eccentricities, Howard Hughes left behind a $1 billion empire. A new book details the bitter battle over his estate |work=[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]] |location=New York City|date=October 13, 1997 |access-date=May 15, 2016 }}</ref> and suffered from severe [[obsessive-compulsive disorder]] (OCD).<ref>{{cite AV media |people=David Garonzik (Director), Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Donald L. Barlett (Actors) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xNxpkjTnXQ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020234055/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xNxpkjTnXQ| archive-date=October 20, 2014 |url-status=dead |title=The Affliction of Howard Hughes: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder |publisher=[[Miramax]] |location=Los Angeles, California |date=May 24, 2005 |access-date=August 13, 2018 |via=YouTube}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Nicholas |last=Barber |url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20161205-was-howard-hughes-really-insane |title=Was this billionaire recluse truly mad? |work= BBC Culture |publisher= BBC |location= London |date=December 6, 2016 |access-date=March 13, 2018}}</ref>

Dietrich wrote that Hughes ate the same dinner daily: a [[New York strip steak]] cooked medium rare, dinner salad, and peas; but only the smaller peas, pushing the larger ones aside. For breakfast, his eggs had to be cooked the way Lily, his family cook, made them. Hughes had a "[[Mysophobia|phobia about germs]]", and "his passion for secrecy became a mania."<ref name=Noah/>{{rp|58–62, 182–183}}

While directing ''[[The Outlaw]]'', Hughes became fixated on a small flaw in one of [[Jane Russell]]'s blouses, claiming that the fabric bunched up along a seam and gave the appearance of two nipples on each breast. He wrote a detailed memorandum to the crew on how to fix the problem. [[Richard Fleischer]], who directed ''[[His Kind of Woman]]'' with Hughes as executive producer, wrote at length in his autobiography about the difficulty of dealing with the tycoon. In his book ''Just Tell Me When to Cry'', Fleischer explained that Hughes was fixated on trivial details and was alternately indecisive and obstinate. He also revealed that Hughes' unpredictable [[mood swing]]s made him wonder if the film would ever be completed.

In 1957, Hughes told his aides that he wanted to screen some movies at a film studio near his home. He stayed in the studio's darkened screening room for more than four months, never leaving. He ate only chocolate bars and chicken and drank only milk and was surrounded by dozens of boxes of [[Kleenex]] that he continuously stacked and re-arranged.<ref>{{cite web|first=Karen|last=Harris|url=https://historydaily.org/howard-hughes-facts-stories-trivia-weird-stuff|title=Howard Hughes: Facts And Stories You Didn't Know (All The Weird Stuff)|website=History Daily|date=|accessdate=March 2, 2022}}</ref> He wrote detailed memos to his aides giving them explicit instructions neither to look at him nor speak to him unless spoken to. Throughout this period, Hughes sat fixated in his chair, often naked, continuously watching movies. When he finally emerged in the spring of 1958, his hygiene was terrible. He had neither bathed nor cut his hair and nails for weeks; this may have been due to [[allodynia]], which results in a pain response to stimuli that would normally not cause pain.<ref name=PPM.Tennant/>

After the screening room incident, Hughes moved into a bungalow at the [[Beverly Hills Hotel]] where he also rented rooms for his aides, his wife, and numerous girlfriends. He would sit naked in his bedroom with a pink hotel napkin placed over his genitals, watching movies. This may have been because Hughes found the touch of clothing painful due to allodynia. He may have watched movies to distract himself from his pain—a common practice among patients with intractable pain, especially those who do not receive adequate treatment.<ref name=PPM.Tennant/> In one year, he spent an estimated $11&nbsp;million at the hotel.

Hughes began purchasing restaurant chains and four-star hotels that had been founded within the state of Texas. This included, if for only a short period, many unknown franchises currently out of business. He placed ownership of the restaurants with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and all licenses were resold shortly after.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Feser |first=Katherine |date=April 4, 2022 |title=Howard Hughes Corp. buys stake in Jean-Georges Restaurants |url=https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Howard-Hughes-Corp-buys-stake-in-Jean-Georges-17056523.php |access-date=June 6, 2023 |website=Houston Chronicle |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=August 8, 2022 |title=South Street Seaport owner buys stake in Jean-Georges restaurant empire |url=https://nypost.com/2022/08/08/south-street-seaport-owner-buys-stake-in-jean-georges-restaurant-empire/ |access-date=June 6, 2023 |language=en-US}}</ref>

He became obsessed with the 1968 film ''[[Ice Station Zebra]]'', and had it run on a continuous loop in his home. According to his aides, he watched it 150 times.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918526,00.html|title=Tycoons: The Secret Life of Howard Hughes|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|location=New York City|date=December 13, 1976|access-date=March 13, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Dave|last=Kehr|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/11/movies/11dvd.html|title=New DVDs: 'Ice Station Zebra'|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=January 11, 2005|access-date=November 8, 2013}}</ref> Feeling guilty about the failure of his film ''[[The Conqueror (1956 film)|The Conqueror]]'', a commercial and critical flop, he bought every copy of the film for $12 million, watching the film on repeat. [[Paramount Pictures]] acquired the rights of the film in 1979, three years after his death.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/movie-toxic-killed-john-wayne-tragedy-conqueror/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/movie-toxic-killed-john-wayne-tragedy-conqueror/ |archive-date=January 10, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=The movie so toxic it killed John Wayne: the tragedy of The Conqueror|first=Chris|last=Bell|newspaper=The Telegraph |date=January 17, 2017|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Hughes insisted on using tissues to pick up objects to insulate himself from germs. He would also notice dust, stains, or other imperfections on people's clothes and demand that they take care of them. Once one of the most visible men in America, Hughes ultimately vanished from public view, although tabloids continued to follow rumors of his behavior and whereabouts. He was reported to be terminally ill, mentally unstable, or even dead.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lawrence |first=Patrick |title=Howard Hughes and His Mysterious Fake Death |work=EAA |url=https://www.eaa.org/eaa/news-and-publications/eaa-news-and-aviation-news/bits-and-pieces-newsletter/04-12-2017-howard-hughes-and-his-mysterious-fake-death}}</ref>

Injuries from numerous aircraft crashes caused Hughes to spend much of his later life in pain, and he eventually became addicted to [[codeine]], which he injected [[Intramuscular injection|intramuscularly]].<ref name=PPM.Tennant/> He had his hair cut and nails trimmed only once a year, likely due to the pain caused by the [[complex regional pain syndrome|RSD/CRPS]], which was caused by the plane crashes.<ref name=PPM.Tennant/> He also stored his urine in bottles.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/lklw/date/2002-01-20/segment/00|title=Guests Discuss the Late Howard Hughes|work=CNN|date=January 20, 2002|access-date=May 5, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=William|last=Booth|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7810-2004Dec17.html|title=Leo and Howard|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=December 19, 2004|access-date=May 5, 2017}}</ref>