The son of a wealthy family, William Randolph Hearst was an infamous publisher who used his father's mining fortune to own and operate the San Francisco Examiner, filling pages with sensationalistic articles. After his success at the Examiner, he acquired more newspapers and began building his media empire. He is widely believed to be the inspiration for Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane — the parallels are so similar that Hearst tried to squash print reviews in Hearst publications and have Welles blacklisted from studios.
Image Source: Getty / ullstein bild Dtl. / Contributor