Jonathan Dolgen Dies: Longtime Viacom, Fox & Sony Executive Known For Tough Dealmaking Was 78
deadline.comJonathan Dolgen, a respected longtime entertainment industry executive known for his tough dealmaking and attention to budgets while chairman of Viacom and earlier as President of Columbia Pictures’ film unit and head of television at Twentieth Century Fox, died Monday of natural causes at UCLA Medical Center.
He was 78. Born the son of a trade union organizer on April 27, 1945, in Queens, Dolgen served in the Army Reserves before becoming a Wall Street lawyer.
He was recruited to the Columbia Pictures legal team as Assistant General Counsel in 1976. He was upped to SVP Worldwide Business Affairs three years later and promoted again in 1980 to EVP, now responsible for making the major deals and negotiating contracts.
Columbia in 1981 formed a pay-TV and home video unit, before it had big revenue from either area, and numbers-cruncher Dolgen was elevated to president of the nascent division.
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