Confidant and aide to Howard Hughes

He begged Hughes to let him see him, but the world's richest man refused direct contact. "He finally told me that he did not want me to see him because of the way in which he had allowed himself to deteriorate, the way in which he was living," Maheu told Larry King in 1991, "and that he felt that if I ever in fact saw him I would never be able to represent him."

Maheu was abruptly fired in 1970, when the drug-addled Hughes was controlled by a group of unscrupulous staff members. Maheu returned to managing his company, Robert A. Maheu and Associates, which advised casinos on investments. He also served on the boards of many companies and was a civic presence in Las Vegas for more than 40 years.

After Hughes died in 1976, Maheu read the autopsy report and cried at its sad chronicle of abuse. According to the report, Hughes' drug use had rendered him almost unrecognizable: He was dirty, severely malnourished, missing teeth and had hypodermic needles buried in his arm.

"The biggest regret of my life," Maheu told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2000, "is not grabbing Howard Hughes with my two hands, shaking him by the shoulders and saying, 'Enough is enough.' "

In addition to his son Peter, Maheu is survived by two sons, 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. A funeral will be held at noon Saturday at St. Viator Catholic Church in Las Vegas.

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elaine.woo@latimes.com