Aaron Russo (February 14, 1943 – August 24, 2007) was an American entertainment businessman, film producer, director, and political activist.

Growing up in Lawrence, Nassau County, New York, on Long Island,[1] Russo worked for his family's undergarment business.

He booked numerous prominent rock groups and musicians at the club such as The Grateful Dead, Iron Butterfly, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, King Crimson, Vanilla Fudge, Rotary Connection, and The Who.

[2] 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.

In 1987, Aaron Russo had set up his own entertainment company, Aaron Russo Entertainment with self-financing up to $86 million in coin to aid for the prospecting for film, TV and music properties and it was a Delaware corporation that was based in New York, and gave them a capital of $62 million for production of 6-to-10 films each budgeted at $5 million, which is maximum of $15 million, and gains agreements with Vestron Inc. for US home video rights, the Rank Organization (previous position held by Producers Sales Organization, prior to bankruptcy) gave them foreign rights to all media and US syndication and pay cable rights going to HBO, 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.