Sumner Redstone, one of the biggest and most influential businessmen in US media, has died at the age of 97, according to ViacomCBS.
Billionaire Sumner Redstone, who served as chairman of Viacom and National Amusements, is known both for his deal-making as well as his turbulent personal life.
Who is Sumner Redstone?
He was born in 1923 in New England as Sumner Rothstein but convinced his father in 1940 to change the family name to Redstone, a literal translation of Rothstein.
He attended Harvard and worked during World War II for a military intelligence unit assigned to decipher wartime codes.
His father operated a chain of movie theaters under a company called National Amusements, which he joined in 1954 and became chief executive officer (CEO) in 1967. He is credited with creating the term "multiplex."
After taking over his father's drive-in movie theater business, Redstone was able to turn National Amusements into a global media empire. At his peak, his businesses included CBS and Viacom, corporations that are parent companies to several subsidiaries, including Paramount Pictures, MTV, Comedy Central, and Spike TV.
ViacomCBS CEO Robert Bakish described Redstone as "a brilliant visionary, operator and dealmaker, who single-handedly transformed a family-owned drive-in theater company into a global media portfolio".
"He was a force of nature and fierce competitor," Bakish added.
In a statement on Wednesday, Sumner's daughter Shari Redstone said: "My father led an extraordinary life that not only shaped entertainment as we know it today, but created an incredible family legacy."
"Through it all, we shared a great love for one another and he was a wonderful father, grandfather and great-grandfather. I am so proud to be his daughter and I will miss him always," Shari continued.
Sumner is also admired for his grit. In a 2009 interview, the former lawyer and Harvard graduate recounted how he survived a 1979 Boston hotel fire by hanging from the ledge of his hotel-room window.
The incident left his hand and legs seriously burned and required multiple surgeries. He also later survived prostate cancer. He said: "I have no intention of ever retiring, or of dying."
However, in 2016, he stepped down as chairman of Viacom and as as executive chairman of the CBS board of directors at the age of 92.
Expanding from theaters to global media
Concerned that the movie theater business was maturing at the start of the 1980s, Sumner started acquiring media companies.
In 1987, he took over Viacom Pictures and became chairman of the board and after seven years, he won a bidding war to acquire Paramount Communications, the parent company of the Paramount movie studio.
As CEO of Viacom, Sumner bought CBS for $36 billion in 2000 in what was then considered the largest media merger ever.
Personal life and controversies
In 2006, his son Brent sued him for alleged governance abuses and self-dealing, which Sumner eventually settled by  buying out his son's stake in National Amusements. He was estranged from Shari for several years before reconciling with her.
He was married to his first wife, Phyllis Raphael, for more than 50 years before divorcing her in 1999 and three years later, he married Paula Fortunato, a teacher around 40 years younger than him. He and Fortunato eventually divorced in 2008 after five years of marriage.
Manuela Herzer subsequently became his longtime girlfriend, who claims that he once proposed to her but she turned him down. They remained friends, even during the four years he lived with another girlfriend, Sydney Holland.
Their relationship turned to the worse when he decided to evict both Herzer and Holland from his Los Angeles mansion and revoked Herzer's authority to make healthcare decision on his behalf and eliminated her $70 million inheritance.
Sumner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.
