Richard Branson

The increasingly mainstream success of Virgin Records through the 1980s allowed Branson -- who admitted to not being particularly into music -- to indulge his own interests. Along with his high-profile (and sometimes life-threatening) world-record attempts and daredevil feats, he founded Virgin Atlantic Airlines in 1984, positioning it as the younger, hipper and more stylish alternative to the established airlines. That image became the default for Virgin's new ventures, including Virgin Megastores (a multimedia revamp of the original record stores, felled by the decline of music retailers in the 2000s), Virgin Cola (an oddball attempt to take on the major soft drink brands, launched in 1994) and the cellphone provider Virgin Mobile. In 2012, that company drafted Branson to star in its television advertisements, in which he played an exaggeratedly wolfish version of himself. The ads were able to play off of Branson's public persona, particularly in the U.K., as a bearded, middle-aged playboy with expensive hobbies such as ballooning, sailboats and, increasingly, suborbital space tourism through his new venture Virgin Galactic. Branson's image was familiar enough that in 1999, "The Simpsons" (Fox 1989-) spoofed him in the episode "Monty Can't Buy Me Love" with the character of beloved tycoon Arthur Fortune, the Fortune Megastores owner who spends his spare time sledding down Mt. Everest.