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Who Is Ben Aronoff Of Speed Kills? His Real Life Character Don Aronow Was A Famous Name

Author

Andrew Adams

Published Jan 05, 2026

Ben Aronoff is the character based on the crime drama film, Speed Kills which was released in 2018.

Speed kills is a 2018 movie that is based on the speedboat champion racer and multimillionaire, Ben Aronoff. Ben is living a double life which lands him in trouble.

Ben Aronoff’s character was played by the renowned actor John Travolta and he justified the character through his acting.

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Who Is Ben Aronoff Of Speed Kills? Wikipedia Bio

Ben Aronoff was a speedboat racer who arrived in Miami and built his speedboat manufacturing empire in the 1960s. His speed boat racing style catches the eye of many people, and he becomes one of the rich and powerful people of Miami.

But he also catches the attention of the drug smuggling underworld, and his life goes from uphill to downhill in instant. At the beginning of the movie, it is seen that Ben meets a person from the mob who wants to buy a boat from him.

But Ben doesn’t want to get associated with the mob as he had already paid the debts. His life story is told in the entire movie from how he started his company of speed boats to how he became successful and gets dragged down by underground criminals.

The movie ends with the science where Ben was shot in the chest by a strange who shoots him in the chest and flees the scene.

Is Ben Aronoff A Real-Life Character Based On Don Aronow?

Ben Aronoff, a character in the movie, Speed Kills is based on the real-life character Don Aronow. Speed kills is based on Arthur J. Harris’s book of the same name which tells the story and how Don Arrow had died.

In the movie, Don’s name has been changed to Ben, and minor changes have been done in the movie. Similarly, Don’s most famous model boat called The Cigarette was featured in the movie.

Don was killed as same as stated in the movie and his killer was found by the police officer after nearly six years. Robert Bobby Young was found guilty of murdering Don.

On further investigation, it was found that Ben Kramer had paid Robert to kill Don Aronow.

Ben Aronoff Wife And Family- What Happened to him?

Ben Aronoff’s success in business and as a successful boat racer hampered his personal life and caused a separation between him and his wife. Many disputes were going on in his marital life.

Ben and his wife Emily also had a son named Andrew. When Andrew lost the use of his legs in a car accident, then Ben and his wife separated from each other.

Aronoff had tried not to get linked with the mob and is now forced to borrow money from them. Similarly, one of the local mobsters, Meyer Lansky, also pressures Ben to make his boatyard accessible for drug smuggling.

Ben had to return the debt taken from the mob, but due to his involvement with the underground, he gets shot in the chest by a stranger in the car. The murderer after shooting Ben drives away from his car.

He is not shown dead in the movie, but his profuse bleeding and his stopping of the watch denote that he has died from the fatal shot.