The Aviator is a 2004 American biographical rama film, directed by Martin Scorsese, and based largely on the book Howard Hughes: The Secret Life by Charles Higham. It tells the story of the eccentric aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, following his life from the late 1920s through the 1940s, a time when Hughes was directing and producing Hollywood movies as well as test-piloting his own groundbreaking new aircraft. The film also illustrates Hughes' descent into severe obsessive-compulsive disorder and reclusiveness.