William Randolph Hearst

William Randolph Hearst

William Randolph Hearst Sr. (April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician. His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism influenced the nation’s popular media by emphasizing sensationalism and human interest stories. Hearst sold papers by printing giant headlines over lurid stories featuring crime, corruption, sex, and innuendo. His empire reached a peak circulation of 20 million readers a day in the mid-1930s. His life story was the main inspiration for Charles Foster Kane, the lead character in Orson Welles’s film Citizen Kane.

About William Randolph Hearst in brief

Summary William Randolph HearstWilliam Randolph Hearst Sr. (April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician. His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism influenced the nation’s popular media by emphasizing sensationalism and human interest stories. Hearst sold papers by printing giant headlines over lurid stories featuring crime, corruption, sex, and innuendo. His empire reached a peak circulation of 20 million readers a day in the mid-1930s. His life story was the main inspiration for Charles Foster Kane, the lead character in Orson Welles’s film Citizen Kane. His Hearst Castle, constructed on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean near San Simeon, has been preserved as a State Historical Monument and is designated as a National Historic Landmark. His paternal great-grandfather was John Hearst of Ulster Protestant origin. His mother, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, was also of Irish-Irish ancestry; she was appointed as the first woman regent of University of California, Berkeley, donated funds to establish libraries at several universities, including St Paul’s School of Anthropology and the University of New Hampshire. He was a leading supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932–34, but then broke with FDR and became his most prominent enemy on the right. He ran unsuccessfully for President of the U.S. in 1904, Mayor of New York City in 1905 and 1909, and for Governor of New New York in 1906. He died in 1951 at the age of 89.

He is survived by his son, George Hearst Jr., and his wife Phoe be Apperson, his daughter-in-law, and his grandson, William Randolph Jr., the grandson of William Randolph Sr. The Hearst family name was never used by the family of any one branch of the Hearst branch of that family of South Carolina, and changed over a century to that of its surname of its own. The family name Hearst was used afterward by any family members of any size of that branch of South Korea, Canada, and the United States, but not by the Hearsts of any other branch of America. He also had a brother, George, who served as a US Senator, first appointed for a brief period in 1886, then elected later that year. He served from 1887 to his death in 1891. His father was a millionaire mining engineer, owner of gold and other mines through his corporation. His wife was a much younger wife, from a small town in Missouri, and her family came to America from Ballybay, County Monaghan, Ireland, as part of the Cahans Exodus in 1766. Their immigration to South Carolina was spurred in part by the colonial government’s policy that encouraged the immigration of Irish Protestants, many of Scots origin. She was credited with meriting 400 and 100 acres of land on the Long Canes, based upon 100 acres for each dependent of a dependent of the Protestant immigrant. The elder Hearst later entered politics, and served in the US House of Representatives.