  aaron russo (; february 14, 1943 â august 24, 2007) was an american entertainment businessman, film producer and director, and political activist. he was best known for producing such movies as trading places, wise guys, and the rose. later in life, he created various libertarian-leaning political documentaries including mad as hell and america: freedom to fascism. after a six-year battle with bladder cancer, russo died on august 24, 2007. ==early life== aaron russo was born in brooklyn, new york, in 1943. growing up on long island, russo worked for his family's undergarment business. ==entertainment career== in april 1968, russo opened the nightclub kinetic playground in chicago, illinois, originally naming it the electric theater. he booked numerous prominent rock groups and musicians at the club such as the grateful dead, iron butterfly, jefferson airplane, janis joplin, led zeppelin, rotary connection, and the who. 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 final film would be america: freedom to fascism, a political documentary critical of the internal revenue service and the federal reserve system and warning about the coming of the new world order. ==political career== russo became involved in political issues in the early-1990s when he produced and starred in the documentary entitled mad as hell in which he criticized the north american free trade agreement (nafta), the f
1943_births 2007_deaths 9/11_conspiracy_theorists American_Sephardic_Jews American_activists American_documentary_filmmakers American_entertainment_industry_businesspeople American_film_producers Jewish_American_politicians Nevada_Libertarians Nevada_Republicans People_from_Brooklyn People_from_the_Las_Vegas_Valley