# Leo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes? This is Rich! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 2, 2004, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leo-dicaprio-as-howard-hughes-this-is-rich/277696 "2004-12-02T15:05:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leo-dicaprio-as-howard-hughes-this-is-rich/277696/41 "2004-12-03T10:37:19Z")
I wasn’t a huge DiCaprio {or Spielberg, for that matter} fan until I saw Catch Me If You Can - great stuff for both. And Scorsese - well, I haven’t liked some ofl his recent stuff {most of Kundun, half of Gangs Of New York}, but remember that he’s been written off before - the press up to Goodfella’s was mostly “Oh, he hasn’t done anything good since Raging Bull”. Hell, I’ll go see it. AND Howard Hughes discovered Jane Russell {pant pant, slaver slaver} - now, who could play her? ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leo-dicaprio-as-howard-hughes-this-is-rich/277696/42 "2004-12-03T10:43:22Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Heres my idea: Kiefer Sutherland loops his dialog. 😃 OK, that works. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leo-dicaprio-as-howard-hughes-this-is-rich/277696/43 "2004-12-03T14:42:55Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > I just can’t see that at all. He may have the look, but the voice? All wrong. DiCaprio will always seem like a kid to me. Orson Welles was practically just a kid when he started putting together unbelievable shows. He was seen as a _wunderkind_. He was only twenty-three when he did the Mercury Theatre production of “War of the Worlds”. And it was only a couple of years later when Hollywood gave him a blank check to make “Citizen Kane”. I don’t believe that DiCaprio is a _wunderkind_ like Welles, but I do believe if they put together a movie based on Orson Welle’s early life (before he got fat and bloated), DiCaprio could pull it off. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leo-dicaprio-as-howard-hughes-this-is-rich/277696/44 "2004-12-03T14:44:53Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Heres my idea: Kiefer Sutherland loops his dialog. 😃 Or Maurice LaMarche. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leo-dicaprio-as-howard-hughes-this-is-rich/277696/45 "2004-12-03T17:36:23Z")
Has DiCaprio undergone some type of treatment to arrest the unnatural growth of his skull? I mean make-up and camera work can disguise some things, but AFAIK Howard Hughes didn’t have proteus syndrome. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leo-dicaprio-as-howard-hughes-this-is-rich/277696/46 "2004-12-03T18:31:41Z")
re: the voice. I checked out the trailer. The voice works. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leo-dicaprio-as-howard-hughes-this-is-rich/277696/47 "2004-12-03T18:43:42Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > …he repeated the stories about Hugh’s weirder later years. Supposedly, Hughes always had the same dessert every night-a bowl of Baskin-Robbins french vanlla ice cream. Somewhere ina freezer of a Las Vegas hotel kitchen, is several tons of this ice cream! > [@GuanoLad](#): > > How is that weird? > [@](#): > > One of Howard Hughes’ short-lived attachments was to Baskin and Robbins banana-and-nut flavored ice cream. For some months he ate a scoopful with every meal. When it was noticed that stocks were running low, a domestic was sent out for more. He returned empty-handed, reporting that the line had been discontinued. In a state of shock, the staff contacted Baskin and Robbins and begged them to make up a special batch. IIRC the Reader’s Digest reported that the very day the shipment of ice cream arrived, the exchange then did go like this: _ **Hughes** _: (after eating the ice dream) For how long have we ordered this flavor? _ **Aide** _ : For Several months Mr Hughes… _ **Hughes** _: You know, this is an excellent flavor, but I think it is time to try something different: from now on I want French Vanilla! _ **Aides** _: :smack: > [@](#): > > His aides spent the next twelve months asking everyone they knew whether they liked banana-and-nut flavored ice cream. Those who said they did were presented with a two-gallon drum." [Sources: Peter Bushell, Great Eccentrics] ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leo-dicaprio-as-howard-hughes-this-is-rich/277696/48 "2004-12-03T19:53:02Z")
Anyone have any advance word on whether they have Hughes and Jean Harlow having an affair during _Hell’s Angels_? They didn’t, but it would probably “make good cinema . . .” Actually, Hughes had pretty much lost interest in _Hell’s Angels_ by the time it was re-tooled into a talkie, with Jean Harlow taking Greta Nissen’s old role. He cast her, of course, and dropped around the set once or twice when her scenes were being shot, and went to the premiere. But Jean told her friends of _course_ she made a play for him–he was a cute young zillionaire–but that he wasn’t interested. He was hot and heavy with actress Billie Dove at the time, and all he ever offered Jean, to her chagrin, was half of a cookie on the set one day. Doubt that’ll be how the movie shows it . . . ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leo-dicaprio-as-howard-hughes-this-is-rich/277696/49 "2004-12-08T15:33:57Z")
In the famous photograph of HH (at the controls of his ill-fated “Spruce Goose”) Huges was wearng a 1940’s style jacket. It had the sleeves and lapels which were of a different material from the body of the jacket. Where (outside of a vintage clothing shop) can I get one of these? Any chance the DiCaprio film will re-ignite this cool style? 🆒 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leo-dicaprio-as-howard-hughes-this-is-rich/277696.md?page=2)