FACTBOX: Warren Buffett at a glance

(Reuters) - Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N), is perhaps America's most-revered capitalist.

Here are five facts about Buffett:

* Buffett, 77, bought Berkshire, a textile maker, in 1965, and built it through acquisitions and investments into a $214 billion company. It now owns more than 70 companies, including auto insurer Geico, reinsurer General Re, ice cream maker Dairy Queen, and utility MidAmerican Energy. It also has big stakes in companies with recognizable global brands such as American Express Co (AXP.N), Coca-Cola Co (KO.N) and Procter & Gamble Co (PG.N).

* Buffett has said that most of his wealth, estimated last September at $52 billion by Forbes magazine, will go to philanthropies after his death. He has pledged 85 percent of his net worth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities.

* Despite being one of the world's richest people, Buffett draws an annual salary of just $100,000 to run Berkshire.

* Buffett drinks five cans of Cherry Coke a day. The outdoor shareholder "barbecue" last May 5 featured beef and chicken tacos, but Buffett said he'd enjoy the hamburgers. "It's amazing what Cherry Coke and hamburgers will do for a fellow," he said in the company's 2006 annual report.

* Buffett plays ukulele, and is a bridge partner of Bill Gates, the Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) chairman. Gates is also a Berkshire director.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, editing by Philip Barbara)