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Who

Chuck Dolan is the founder and chairman of the cable and entertainment giant Cablevision. His son is Jim Dolan, Cablevision's CEO.

Backstory

A Cleveland native and college dropout, Dolan first made his mark in 1965 when he founded Sterling Manhattan Cable, a TV equipment company that later won the franchise to build the first urban cable system in America. Dolan didn't end up attracting many subscribers to the nascent service, though, and he eventually decided that adding original programming might create a useful incentive. Joining forces with Time-Life's Jerry Levin, Dolan founded HBO in 1973; a year later, Levin offered to buy his stake in Sterling and HBO, and Dolan used to proceeds to found Cablevision, focusing his attention on the suburbs and acquiring cable franchises on Long Island. He later expanded to New Jersey and Connecticut, turning his attention to programming two decades later with the launch of cable channels like AMC and Bravo. In 1994, Dolan acquired Madison Square Garden for $1 billion, a deal that also provided him with ownership of the Knicks and the Rangers. Although he stepped down as the company's CEO a year later—his son Jim is now the company's chief executive—he has remained Cablevision's chairman ever since and still plays a major behind-the-scenes role in the company's affairs, recently helping to orchestrate its $650 million takeover of Long Island newspaper Newsday.

Keeping score

Dolan is worth around $3.3 billion, according to Forbes.

Of note

The reclusive Cablevision founder couldn't be more different from his son, Jim. Brash, outspoken and impulsive, the younger Dolan has clashed repeatedly with his father over the years, most publicly over the fate of Voom, a satellite service that cost the company more than $1 billion before it was closed down in 2005. (Chuck favored it; Jim was against it. It turned out Jim was right.) The tension-filled father-son dynamic at the company—and their obsession with keeping things under wraps—has never pleased investors: "It's the North Korea of the cable business. No one understands what they are doing, but everybody is concerned," the Hollywood Reporter once wrote. And the Dolans' discomfort with living life under a microscope as a public company led father and son to make several attempts to buy back the company. Four such offers were rebuffed, though, most recently in October 2007, when shareholders turned down their $10.6 billion to take Cablevision private, calling it too cheap.

Personal

Chuck and his wife, Helen Ann, have six children. In addition to Jim, sons Thomas and Patrick are senior execs at Cablevision as well. Chuck and Helen Ann live on a waterfront estate in Oyster Bay, next door to Jim and his family.

Family ties

Larry Dolan, the owner of the Cleveland Indians, is his brother.