Who

Aoki is the Jheri-curled restaurateur behind Benihana, the chain of Japanese steakhouse popular with kids, tourists and people who care more about flash than food. Aoki died on July 10, 2008.

Backstory

Hiroaki Aoki was born in Tokyo. A world-class wrestler in his younger years, he arrived in the States in 1960 on an athletic scholarship. When he broke the leg of a competitor in a tournament, he lost the scholarship, but instead of returning to Japan, he made ends meet selling ice cream in Harlem while he studied restaurant management at night. With some cash from his dad, in 1964 Aoki opened Benihana on West 56th Street with just four tables. Although the buzz was slow in building, when word got out about the restaurant's culinary acrobatics and pyrotechnics, Aoki had a hit on his hands. In 1968, he opened his second branch in Chicago; over the course of the '70s, Aoki took the Benihana teppanyaki concept to a dozen other U.S. cities.

He also branched out into other—and decidedly more bizarre—sidelines: At one point, his empire consisted of a porn magazine named Genesis (Aoki's brilliant concept: offer subscribers two centerfolds instead of just one like in Playboy) and he later opened a nightclub which went by the same name, where he "stayed up till dawn, snorting cocaine, picking up girls, and betting $100 per point on backgammon." The porn magazine and club are long behind him, and Aoki no longer runs the company he founded, but he remains one of the dining biz's more colorful characters.

Of note

Aoki resigned as Benihana's chairman and CEO in 1998 after he was charged with insider trading and pleaded guilty. (He paid $500,000 in fines and received three months' probation.) He remained a consultant to Benihana until 2006, when he split from the company entirely, although he retains a sizeable stake—and he still owns one restaurant, Sushi Doraku in Florida, which he bought back from Benihana Inc. in 2006. Aoki's baby has done well for itself: the publicly-traded Benihana Inc. controls 59 teppanyaki joints in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia. The company also controls the sushi chain Haru, which has seven locations in the New York area, and RA Sushi, which has 17 branches, mostly on the West Coast.

The look

As for Aoki's signature Jheri curl, he claims he adopted it in the 1960s so "white people could tell him apart from other Asians."

Medical file

Aoki was nearly killed in a speedboat accident a number of years ago; he subsequently tested positive for Hepatitis C, which he claims he contracted the illness from blood transfusions he received in the hospital. He says he also suffers from diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver.

Drama

Aoki has been engaged in a long and bitter dispute with his kids over his grill fortune. (He estimates his net worth at $60-100 million.) He's now suing four of his six kids—Grace, Kevin, Kyle and Echo—over his estate. The two kids he's not suing? Son Steve, a DJ who runs indie music label Dim Mak, and daughter Devon Aoki, the actress/model who appeared in Sin City and 2 Fast 2 Furious.

Personal

Aoki has been married three times. His first wife was Chizuru Kobayashi, with whom he had three kids: Grace, Kevin, and Steve. He had a lengthy affair during his first marriage with the woman who would become his second wife, Pamela Hillberger. (Indeed, it wasn't until the kids from his marriage to Chizuru and the kids from his affair with Hillberger accidentally met that the jig was up.) Aoki had three kids in total with Hillberger—Echo, Devon, and Kyle—before divorcing. He's now married for the third time, to Keiko Ono. The couple resides at the Olympic Towers, the 51-story glass tower across the street from St. Patrick's.