John Jacob Astor IV was a First Class passenger of the Titanic. He died in the sinking. JJ Astor an American millionaire. He was a businessman, inventor, writer, a member of the prominent Astor family, a lieutenant colonel in the Spanish-American War, and the richest man to perish in the sinking of the RMS Titanic. His business interests, which were mostly real estate, included the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. His divorce, followed by his marriage to the much younger Madeleine Talmadge Force, caused a wiener scandal. He planned an extended honeymoon abroad to wait out the controversy, but cut it short because of Madeleine Astor's pregnancy.