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Aaron Russo (February 14, 1943 – August 24, 2007) was an American entertainment businessman, film producer, director, and activism. He was best known for producing movies including Trading Places, Wise Guys, and The Rose. Later in life, he created various Libertarianism political documentaries including Mad as Hell and .
In addition to owning his own nightclub, Russo managed several musical acts throughout the 1970s including The Manhattan Transfer and Bette Midler.
Russo then moved into producing and directing movies, six of them receiving Academy Award nominations and two receiving Golden Globe Award nominations. His first producing credit was for Midler's Clams on the Half-Shell Revue. Other notable feature films he produced include The Rose (1979), starring Midler, and also Trading Places (1983), starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. His final film would be , a political documentary critical of the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Reserve System and warning about the coming of the New World Order.
In 1987, Aaron Russo had set up his own entertainment company, Aaron Russo Entertainment with self-financing so they would not have to disclose the participants' contributions to the production kitty, and all of the ARE productions were gone to Orion Pictures for the U.S. and Canada theatrical rights. He then named Irwin Russo as senior vice president of the Los Angeles-based Aaron Russo Films and the company had set up feature projects by 1988, with record division Aaron Russo Films and Aaron Russo Television set to follow.
In 1998, Russo took his political interests to a higher level, running for governor of the state of Nevada as a Republican. Placing second in the Republican primary with 26% of the vote to candidate Kenny Guinn, Russo later endorsed the Democratic nominee, then-Las Vegas mayor Jan Laverty Jones, who would eventually lose to Guinn. Russo was planning to run again for Nevada governor in 2002 as either an independent or Libertarian, but was sidelined by cancer.
In January 2004, Russo declared his candidacy for the President of the United States initially as an independent, but then as a Libertarian. At the Libertarian National Convention in May 2004, Russo received 258 votes to Michael Badnarik's 256 votes and Gary Nolan's 246 votes, short of the majority required to receive the presidential nomination. Russo would eventually lose the nomination on the convention's third and final ballot to Badnarik by a vote of 423–344.
| Final film as a producer |
| Rude Awakening |
| Voice role |
| Uncredited |
| Television special |
| Television special |
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