Kerkorian does not gamble in his casinos, but when he wagers elsewhere, he tends to be a one-off gambler, say those who have seen him but declined to be identified so not to draw the billionaire's ire. They say he will not sit at a blackjack or craps table for hours. Instead, he will walk by a gaming table, place one large bet and, win or lose, walk away.
As he has for more than three decades, Kerkorian declined to comment. The world's 65th-richest person -- worth $6 billion, according to Forbes magazine -- is not reclusive but private, say friends and associates.
Kirk Kerkorian is listed by Forbes magazine as the 65th-richest person in the world.
(Mike Mergen -- Bloomberg News)
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Hollywood Romance Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian has bought and sold Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. three times since 1969.
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Hollywood's Lion Kings Sony is buying one of Hollywood's most famous studios, but it's Comcast and the future of content delivery that may make this merger more meaningful to consumers.
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"What does he need the press for?" asked Jerry Weintraub, MGM's chief executive in the mid-1980s and now a producer. "Me, I need the press. I sell product." Weintraub said he called Kerkorian to ask permission to be interviewed for this story; even though Kerkorian will not speak on the record, he is not uninvolved in the formation of his public image.
When Variety editor Peter Bart was finishing his manuscript of "Fade Out: The Calamitous Final Days of MGM," which came out in 1990, he received a call during an island vacation. It was Kerkorian on the line. Though Kerkorian would not be quoted for the book, he told Bart that he would be happy to review the manuscript and offer suggestions, which he did, Bart said, relating the story last summer in Los Angeles.
Kerkorian's aversion to the press hasn't kept his private life completely out of the public eye. In 1999, he went through a nasty-even-by-Hollywood-standards divorce from his third wife, Lisa Bonder, a former tennis pro 49 years his junior. (His first marriage lasted 10 years; his second, to a Vegas showgirl, lasted 29 and produced two children, Tracy and Linda, whose names he combined to create his company name -- Tracinda. His charity is called the Lincy Foundation.)
Details of the marriage played out publicly through thousands of pages of court filings and testimony, offering up irresistible and embarrassing details that included sperm counts, a child Bonder falsely claimed Kerkorian fathered and her demands for child support -- $320,000 per month. Kerkorian settled with Bonder for $50,000 a month in child support.
Less public is his charitable work. Following the devastating 1988 earthquake in Armenia, where Kerkorian's parents were born, he began sending one cargo jet per month of medical and other supplies, a practice he continues. His foundation recently gave a $200 million grant to repair infrastructure in the capital city of Yerevan and build 3,800 homes. He refuses to have his foundation's recipients name buildings for him.
Kerkorian can be personally generous, as well, Ladd said.
"He'll tip the maitre d' $100 for a check that was $50," said Ladd, who is suing MGM for a percentage of the adjusted gross income of the three most recent Bond films.
Now Kerkorian is focused on Vegas. But is it too much of a young man's town for an 87-year-old? Doubtful, Yemenidjian said.
"I think his genes are better than yours or mine," he said.
