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Aaron Russo, RIP

Hollywood producer and freedom movement activist Aaron Russo passed away yesterday. From my personal site:

An old friend, Hollywood icon and warrior for freedom just passed away. Hollywood producer and former presidential candidate Aaron Russo had been battling cancer for years and it finally caught up with him. I just spoke with immediate family members and confirmed his passing. [snip]

I’ll relay more information as the immediate family has time to deal with the situation.

If I had to guess the epitaph Aaron would prefer, it would be this: All your freedoms, all the time!


Some biographical information from Michael Hampton:

Award-winning filmmaker and libertarian political activist Aaron Russo succumbed to cancer Friday at age 64.

Russo was best known for his films, most famous among them Trading Places and The Rose, which won three Golden Globe awards in 1980.

What’s less well known is that he was also instrumental in bringing musical acts to the United States in the 1970s, including one of my all-time favorites, Led Zeppelin.

In his later years, though, Russo turned to politics. In 1996 he produced and starred in a film, Mad as Hell, where he criticized many government policies such as the national ID card, the war on drugs, and government regulation of alternative medicine. In 1998 he ran in the Republican primary for governor of Nevada but was defeated. In 2002, before he could decide whether to run again, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer.

In 2004 he ran for President under the Libertarian Party banner, but failed to get the nomination.

Most recently he produced a documentary film, America: Freedom to Fascism, showing a quest to discover which law requires Americans to pay federal income taxes and finding something quite different.

Comments

I first met Aaron when he was running for the LP nomination in 2004. He was a passionate advocate for liberty and would have done a great deal to put the Party on the political map. Despite being narrowly rejected for the LP nomination, Russo kept working for liberty. He will be missed.

Free-for-all (frfr-ôl) -- n. A disorderly fight, argument, or competition in which everyone present participates.

from Dictionary.com



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