Although Titanic’s main story is fictional, it used the tragedy of the RMS Titanic as its basis, and as such, it also included characters based on real-life passengers of the ship, including the Titanic’s richest passenger – and here’s who it was. Although James Cameron has since made other visually outstanding movies, Titanic stands as one of his most ambitious and successful projects, mixing fiction with real-life elements and stories.
Titanic introduced the audience to Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), a first-class young woman, and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), a third-class passenger, who met and fell in love onboard the ship. Jack and Rose had to defend their romance from those who wanted to keep them apart, but they also met people from the first-class side of the ship who were polite and even understanding of their bond. Among those first-class passengers Jack and Rose met was the richest man on the ship: John Jacob Astor IV (Eric Braeden), whose final moments on the ship have made way for some interesting stories.
John Jacob Astor IV Was Titanic’s Richest Passenger
John Jacob Astor IV was an American real estate developer, investor, writer, and business magnate believed to have been one of the richest people in the world at the time of his death. Astor’s net worth when he died was roughly $87 million, and he came from a prominent family of politicians, socialites, and more. Astor published the sci-fi novel A Journey in Other Worlds in 1894 and patented various inventions, such as a bicycle brake and a pneumatic road-improver, and he helped develop a turbine engine. In real estate, Astor built the Astoria Hotel, deemed “the world’s most luxurious hotel”, in New York City, which along with the adjoining Waldorf Hotel (owned by his cousin and rival), became known as the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
Astor married Ava Lowle Willing in 1891 and divorced in 1909, but he remarried shortly after, marrying 18-year-old Madeleine Talmage Force when he was 47. While traveling through Europe, Madeleine became pregnant and they decided their child would be born in the U.S. so they boarded the Titanic. Astor didn’t survive the sinking of the Titanic, but his wife did, and his last moments on the ship made way for a lot of stories, among them one that claims he opened the ship’s kennel and released the dogs, including his own. Another story claims he put a woman’s hat on a boy to make sure he could get into a lifeboat, while another says he exclaimed “I asked for ice, but this is ridiculous” after the Titanic hit the iceberg. Due to his prominence and legacy, Astor has appeared in different adaptations of the story of the Titanic.
How James Cameron’s Titanic Portrayed John Jacob Astor IV
Of course, James Cameron’s Titanic included John Jacob Astor IV among its characters, though not a prominent one. Rose tells Jack about Astor and his wife when they are at the first-class dinner, and he’s the one who asks Jack if he’s linked to the “Boston Dawsons”. Astor is last seen at the Grand Staircase, walking past Benjamin Guggenheim, but a deleted Titanic scene expanded on this scene and addressed one of the above-mentioned myths about Astor. In it, Astor tells Guggenheim that he’s “looking for my damn dog” as “Madeleine asked me to look for the dog”, and that’s his final appearance. Titanic didn’t expand on John Jacob Astor IV’s story because it was irrelevant to that of the main characters, but that deleted scene would have been nice to watch in the final cut.