Charles Francis Dolan, the billionaire founder of HBO and Cablevision whose family owned Madison Square Garden and AMC Networks, died Saturday of natural causes, the family announced in a statement.
Dolan, 98, died of natural causes while surrounded by loved ones, his family said in a statement to Newsday, a media outlet owned by Charles’ son Patrick.
The Dolan family said Charles will be remembered as a “pioneer in the television industry” and a “devoted family man,” and is survived by six children, 19 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, Newsday reported.
It is not immediately clear where Dolan was at the time of his death, although Charles Dolan lived primarily in Cove Neck Village on Long Island, New York.
Dolan and his family have a fortune valued at $5.4 billion, according to the most recent estimates by Forbes.
Dolan and his six children have controlling interests in AMC Networks and Madison Square Garden’s sports and entertainment companies, including the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers, run by Dolan’s son, James.
Born in Cleveland in 1926, Charles Dolan moved with his wife Helen to New York City in the early 1950s to work for a television news service.
Dolan increased his initial fortune by securing the wiring rights to lower Manhattan and founded HBO’s predecessor, which he sold in 1973 to finance a new cable system, Cablevision.
He founded the American Movie Classics network in 1984, which later became AMC Networks, and his son James served as CEO of Cablevision until 2016, when the company was sold to Altice for $17.7 billion.
Dolan is also the founder and president emeritus of the Lustgarten Foundation, the world’s largest private funder of pancreatic cancer research.
This article was originally published in Forbes US
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