His second wife, actress Jean Peters, married Hughes in Tonopah in 1957, divorced him in 1970. Except for a brief period in 1961, they lived apart. Meanwhile, Hughes cultivated his image as the playboy filmmaker who discovered Jean Harlow and Jane Russell the daredevil aviator who broke speed records in airplanes he designed. After his round-the-world flight of 1938, he became a national hero on par with Charles Lindburgh.
