2024-12-29 16:53:00
Charles Dolan, the billionaire founder of HBO and Cablevision, whose family owns Madison Square Garden, has died at age 98.
Dolan passed away of natural causes surrounded by his loved ones, according to a statement issued by his family. “It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of our beloved father and patriarch, Charles Dolan, the visionary founder of HBO and Cablevision,” the statement reads.
Dolan’s career began in New York City in 1952 when he was just 26 years old.
Dolan’s legacy in cable broadcasting includes the 1972 launch of Home Box Office, later known as HBO, and founding Cablevision in 1973 and the American Movie Classics television station in 1984. He also launched News 12 in New York City, the first 24-hour cable channel for local news in the U.S., Newsday reported.
The Cleveland native, who dropped out of John Carroll University in suburban Cleveland, completed the sale of Cablevision to Altice, a European telecommunications and cable company, for $17.7 billion in June 2016.
Dolan, whose primary home was in Cove Neck Village on Long Island in New York, also held controlling stakes in companies that owned Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers, Newsday reported.
At the time of his death, Charles Dolan and his family had a net worth of $5.4 billion, Forbes reported.
Dolan was a founder and chairman emeritus of The Lustgarten Foundation in Uniondale, New York, which conducts pancreatic cancer research.
He is survived by six children, 19 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. His wife, Helen Ann Dolan, died in 2023, Newsday reported.
