Sumner Redstone dead: Media mogul who famously fired Tom Cruise over Oprah interview dies at 97
The US media mogul who turned his father's drive-in theatre into a huge media empire has died at the age of 97
Media mogul Sumner Redstone, who once famously fired Tom Cruise, has died.
The US businessman, who turned his father's drive-in theatre into a huge media empire, has died at the age of 97.
Sumner, whose net worth was estimated by Forbes at $4.3 billion, was the controlling shareholder of both ViacomCBS, previously known as CBS Corp, and Viacom.
The businessman made the mantra "content is king" famous.
He had been the executive chairman of both companies until recently, when his health began to decline.
Redstone was a Harvard-trained lawyer and worked as a Japanese code breaker during the Second World War.
He led a very interesting life, also surviving a near-fatal hotel fire in 1979.
He was both respected and reviled for his litigious battles, which saw him win Viacom in 1987 and later Paramount in 1994.
Sumner filed a lawsuit back in the 1950s in a bid to break the grip Hollywood studios had on theatrical distribution.
He went to court decades later to thwart the cable TV monopoly.
Redstone famously ruled his companies like a king.
In 2006, he fired Mission: Impossible star Tom Cruise after the actor jumped on Oprah Winfrey's couch while expressing his love for Katie Holmes.
"His behavior was terrible," he said at the time.
Sumner also said he felt the actor was "getting paid $10 million, on the lot, for doing nothing".
Despite the drama, he later reconciled with Cruise, going on to say that he and the star were "best friends".
Sumner's net worth has been estimated as a whopping $4.3 billion, with him and his family controlling 80% of the voting shares of Viacom and CBS.
But he once had to fight to hold onto his company, against a challenge that suggested he wasn't mentally capable of running his businesses.
After he testified on video, a Los Angeles judge ruled that the mogul was in full command of his faculties and dismissed the suit.
Redstone had grown up in poverty, and wrote in his 2001 autobiography, Passion To Win, about how the apartment he was raised in didn't even have a toilet.
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