This page uses content from the Aaron Russo biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Aaron Russo is an American entertainment businessman, film maker, Libertarian political figure, and tax protester.

Entertainment career

During his career in the entertainment industry, Russo was manager for Bette Midler from 1972 to 1979 [1] and The Manhattan Transfer, and the producer of the films The Rose and Trading Places. He also produced Wise Guys. Russo has stated that he was the first person to book Led Zeppelin in a United States venue, (the "Electric Circus," Chicago,1968, later named the "Kinetic Playground").

He was awarded an Emmy for a Bette Midler TV special, and a gold record for producing the Soundtrack to The Rose.

Russo also took one shot at directing with 1989's Rude Awakening.

Russo's films, which include Trading Places (starring Eddie Murphy) and The Rose (starring Bette Midler), have received six academy award nominations. Russo has personally won both an Emmy and a Tony award and his films have also won a number of Golden Globe awards.

His latest film is America: Freedom to Fascism, an "advomentary" (advocacy documentary) critical of The Federal Reserve System and the Internal Revenue Service.

Political career

Russo became political in the early 1990s when he produced and starred in a video entitled Mad As Hell in which he criticized NAFTA, The War on Drugs, the concept of a National Identity Card, and government regulation of alternative medicine.

Russo ran in the Republican primary for governor of Nevada in 1998, placing second with 26% of the vote. He then endorsed the Democratic candidate, Las Vegas mayor Jan Laverty Jones, who lost to Republican Kenny Guinn. Russo subsequently planned to run for governor in 2002 as an independent or a Libertarian, but he was temporarily sidelined by cancer.

In January 2004, he declared his candidacy for the President of the United States as an independent, then decided to run for the Libertarian Party's nomination. While some considered Russo's style crude and even insulting [2], others argued his media experience would enable him to pose a serious threat to incumbent President George W. Bush, pulling enough votes from otherwise likely Bush voters to affect the outcome in battleground states, in the same way that Ralph Nader was considered to be in relation to Democrat John Kerry.[3][4][5]

At the Libertarian National Convention in May 2004, Russo received 258 votes, as opposed to 256 for Michael Badnarik and 246 for Gary Nolan, a majority being required to receive the presidential nomination. Russo went on to be defeated on the third and final ballot by nominee Badnarik by a vote of 423-344.

External links

• America: Freedom to Fascism
• Downloadable audio interview with Scott Horton: [6]
• Downloadable audio interview with George Noory on Coast to Coast AM: Part I, II, III
• Downloadable audio interview with Charles Goyette: Part I, II
• , and transcript
• America: Freedom to Fascism (Full Length Movie)
• Outing the Constitutional Criminals Analysis and Review of America: Freedom to Fascism

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.