MGM Mogul Kirk Kerkorian Dead at 98, Founding Father of Modern Las Vegas

Continuing his show business entrepreneurship, Kerkorian bought United Artists in 1981 and, five years later, sold both film studios to media mogul Ted Turner for $1.5 billion. Five months later, he bought the MGM name back, along with the MGM lot in Culver City, and the whole of United Artists, for $470 million.Modest Philanthropist

By 1990, Kerkorian had once again sold the MGM/UA conglomerate and, when the new owner defaulted on a loan, bought it back from the clutches of a French bank. It was finally sold for good in 2005 to a consortium led by Sony, while, always the cagey businessman, Kerkorian retained a 55 percent stake in the MGM Grand.

While the magnate made vast sums from the deals, he was criticized as a philistine who saw the studios as little more than money-making assets, apparently caring little for their artistic output.

Despite this, he was also a philanthropist who donated $1 billion to help rebuild Armenia following the 1988 earthquake. He also gave hundreds of millions to homegrown charities, as well as $200 million to UCLA, but refused to have anything named in his honor.

It was almost inherent that a man who spent so much of his business life ferrying between Hollywood and Las Vegas would be tinged by scandal at some point. In 2006, Terry Christensen, a legal adviser and personal confidant to Kerkorian for 40 years, and an MGM board member for nine years, was indicted and charged with bugging the phone of Kerkorian’s ex-wife who was nearly a half-century his junior, Lisa Bonder. Christensen’s ongoing involvement in MGM affairs after his indictment was the reason that the company was prohibited, until recently, from opening a casino in New Jersey.

Daughters Linda Ross Hilton Kemper and Tracy Kerkorian survive their father, along with three grandchildren. Following the announcement of his passing, current MGM CEO Jim Murren issued a statement saying that Kerkorian would be honored by  the company as a great man, a great business leader, a great community leader, an innovator, and one of our country’s greatest generation.