Jonathan Dolgen, a respected longtime entertainment industry executive known for his tough dealmaking, died Monday of natural causes at UCLA Medical Center. He was 78.
Dolghen was a Wall Street lawyer when he was recruited to the Columbia Pictures legal team as Assistant General Counsel. While there he negotiated deals that would pioneer change in the cable TV industry, including the first studio deal of its kind with HBO.
In 1985 Dolgen moved to Twentieth Century Fox, where he became President of Television. He then worked at Sony Pictures in 1991 as President of Columbia Pictures Movie Division which included both Columbia and Tristar.
In 1994 Dolgen was elected Chairman of Viacom Entertainment, where for a decade he led the company in film, television, amusement parks, Simon & Schuster and music publishing. Dolgen was a key part of the team responsible for Titanic, Braveheart, and Forrest Gump triumphing at the Academy Awards with Best Picture honors for each film. He also was instrumental in the creation of the hit television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the Emmy Award winning series Fraiser. In 2004, after an extraordinary career as a studio executive brokering some of Hollywood’s biggest and most innovative deals, Dolgen formed Wood River Ventures LLC as an advisory and investing media firm.
In 2022 Dolgen received the coveted Motion Picture Pioneer of the Year Award. He also received the Simon Wiesenthal Humanitarian Award and was honored with the UCLA Neurosurgery 2014 Courage Award.
