“He’s a born gambler with a sixth sense for sniffing out value," former auto executive Lee Iacocca, who joined Kerkorian in the unsuccessful Chrysler takeover bid in 1995, told the Los Angeles Times in 2005.
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For example, MGM under Kerkorian often languished artistically and even sold off such items as its studio lot and movie props including Dorothy’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz." In the business world, he was known more for making a deal than for nurturing a company over the long haul, often taking a major risk, reaping the benefits and getting out. He later bought and sold airlines including Western Airlines, started the failed luxury airline MGM Grand Air and launched an unsuccessful bid for Trans World Airlines. You get a drive that’s a little different, maybe a little stronger, than somebody who inherited." “When you’re a self-made man you start very early in life," Kerkorian once told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
He began buying property in Las Vegas in 1962 after selling his charter airline, which he later repurchased, and was on his way to becoming a Las Vegas power player. He was a skilled aviator who flew dangerous missions delivering warplanes from Canada to Britain during World War II and later opened a charter flight business serving gamblers wanting to get from Los Angeles to Las Vegas more quickly than a 10-hour drive. He twice tried to buy Chrysler, triggering a massive legal tussle, and made big investments in General Motors and Ford. Kerkorian mounted high-stakes pursuits of US automakers but never acquired one. Yet, even as a studio chief, he would stand in line to buy movie tickets at a theater with everyone else rather than attend private screenings. Kerkorian bought and sold the venerable MGM film studio three times, acquired the United Artists studio and tried to buy Columbia Pictures. He also was instrumental in turning Las Vegas into a family destination rather than merely a naughty pleasure spot for adults. Kerkorian owned some of the biggest and best-known Las Vegas hotels and casinos, at one time owning more than half the hotel rooms on the famous Las Vegas Strip. On his way to becoming a casino magnate, he befriended “Rat Pack" stars Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and other Las Vegas headliners. Three different times - in 1969, 19 - Kerkorian built the world’s biggest hotel in Las Vegas, the desert gambling capital where he first made his fortune in the 1950s and 1960s. Last month, Forbes magazine estimated Kerkorian’s wealth at $4.2 billion after taking a hit on his investments in 2008, when the magazine said he was worth $16 billion. He would become an enduring American business heavyweight with a knack for placing winning bets in the corporate world.
In his youth he was known as “Rifle Right Kerkorian" for his punching power as a small-time boxer. Kerkorian had little formal education and dropped out of school at age 16.
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