Leon Charney

Son of a sewing supplies salesman inherited $34 when father passed away; paid for Brooklyn Law School by singing in synagogues. Considered career as vocalist, chose entertainment law instead. Star client: Sammy Davis Jr. Built practice by figuring out way to maximize tax benefits for oil partnerships. Jimmy Carter adviser claims to have helped broker Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel 1978. Bought first building—One Times Square—on the night Carter lost reelection to Reagan in 1980. Borrowed, reinvested rental income into 12 surrounding buildings. Owns 3 skyscrapers in Times Square, 1.5 million square feet of commercial space. Tenants include Liz Claiborne, Office Depot, Jones Apparel. Hosts The Charney Report, nationally syndicated political talk show. Mr. Charney was born on July 23, 1938, in Bayonne, N.J., and grew up poor, the son of a sewing supplies salesman who died young. He worked his way through Yeshiva University and Brooklyn Law School, gaining admission to the bar in 1965. That year he made a run for public office but lost a Democratic primary for an Assembly seat from Manhattan. As an entertainment lawyer, he represented Jackie Mason in the late 1960s, after the entertainer ran afoul of Ed Sullivan by making what Mr. Sullivan considered an obscene gesture on his live television variety show. Among Mr. Charney’s other clients was the Broadway star John Raitt. Mr. Charney had parlayed what was a $200 bank account when he was a young man into a fortune that Forbes at one point put at $1 billion, ranking him No. 509 on the magazine’s list of the richest Americans at the time. As a philanthropist he donated $10 million to the Division of Cardiology at New York University School of Medicine in 2002. It was renamed the Leon H. Charney Division of Cardiology. He also donated more than $100 million to Haifa University in Israel. He married Tzili Doron, an Israeli-born costume designer, in 1991. Besides his wife, his survivors include their twin sons, Mickey and Nati, and a sister, Bryna.