Rocky Aoki; Flashy Founder of Benihana

Rocky Aoki used his savings to open the Benihana steakhouses, now an international chain. He was also a sportsman who enjoyed risks. Above, Aoki is shown in California in 1981 after crash-landing a hot-air balloon in a storm. (By Associated Press)

"I want to help my kids," he told New York magazine in 2006, "but I want my children to crawl, to walk, then run on their own. Then I help them. But they can't even crawl. They just collect money and do nothing."

Hiroaki Aoki was born Oct. 9, 1938, in Tokyo and competed in track and field, karate and wrestling at Japan's Keio University before he was expelled for fighting. He was a member of Japan's 1960 Olympic wrestling team and later toured the United States, going undefeated in the 112-pound flyweight class.

After settling in New York, Mr. Aoki won the U.S. flyweight title in 1962, 1963 and 1964 and was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1995. He received an associate's degree from New York City Community College.

In the 1970s, five months after taking up backgammon, Mr. Aoki defeated a former world champion at a tournament. In November 1981, he piloted a helium balloon 5,800 miles across the Pacific Ocean, the longest balloon flight up to that time. He won the inaugural Milan-to-Moscow road rally in 1987, driving a 1959 Rolls-Royce.

Mr. Aoki continually sought new business ventures and sometimes lost big, including a $35 million investment in an Atlantic City hotel and restaurant that never opened. He was more successful with Sushi Doraku, a chain of sushi franchises.

He made sizable donations to medical and environmental causes. When he learned that Benihana used the equivalent of 50 trees' worth of wooden chopsticks in its restaurants each year, he immediately ordered that the chopsticks be made of bamboo instead.

His marriages to Chizuru Kobayashi Aoki and Pamela Hilberger Aoki ended in divorce.

Survivors include his third wife, Keiko Ono Aoki, whom he married in 2002; seven children from his first two wives and other liaisons; and at least four grandchildren.