The Aviator is a 2004 American biographical drama film, directed by Martin Scorsese and based on the life of Howard Hughes, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. The film draws largely upon a biography by Charles Higham. The film centers on Hughes' life from the late 1920s to 1947, during which time he gained success as a film producer and an aviation magnate while simultaneously growing more unstable due to obsessive-compulsive disorder. The film was ...