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F. Ross Johnson | Led RJR Nabisco, 85

F. Ross Johnson, 85, the former RJR Nabisco CEO depicted as the epitome of corporate greed in the bestselling book and movie Barbarians at the Gate , died Thursday in Florida.

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F. Ross Johnson, 85, the former RJR Nabisco CEO depicted as the epitome of corporate greed in the bestselling book and movie

Barbarians at the Gate

, died Thursday in Florida.

In 1986, Mr. Johnson became CEO of RJR Nabisco, a consumer-goods company making both Oreo cookies and Camel cigarettes.

In October 1988, Mr. Johnson and a group of investors proposed taking Atlanta-based RJR Nabisco private, which started a fierce month-long bidding war. The private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts eventually won, paying nearly $25 billion for RJR Nabisco.

The bidding war, as well as Mr. Johnson's notoriously opulent lifestyle, was later dramatized in the bestselling book Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco.

- AP