Charles Bluhdorn

In February 2007, the Bedford, New York estate of his late wife, Yvette, was put on the market for the highest price ever asked for a Westchester County residence. Acquired in 1990 with 25 acres (100,000 m), Mrs. Bluhdorn expanded the estate to 70 acres (280,000 m). It included a restored 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m), 23-room Georgian mansion built in the 1920s, another six-bedroom home of 8,000 square feet (740 m), several guest houses and two pools.

The Charles G. & Yvette Bluhdorn Charitable Trust was a multi-million dollar charity overseen by their children. Between 2007 and 2013 the fund was spent down and as of 2019 lists less than $3,000 in assets.

Bluhdorn's tumultuous relationship with Paramount executive Robert Evans was documented in Evans's 1994 biographical book The Kid Stays in the Picture and in the 2002 film of the same title, as well as the 2022 series The Offer, where Bluhdorn is portrayed by Burn Gorman.

The 1990 film The Godfather Part III was dedicated to Bluhdorn, "who inspired it."

He died at age 56 of a heart attack on his corporate jet while returning home to New York City from his Casa de Campo resort in the Dominican Republic on February 19, 1983.

In 1983, Donald Gaston established the Charles G. Bluhdorn Prize in Economics at Tufts University in Boston in memory of Bluhdorn. It is awarded annually to an undergraduate majoring in economics who has demonstrated outstanding scholastic ability.

Altos de Chavón also has a 5,000 seat open air Greek style amphitheatre, which was inaugurated in 1982 by Frank Sinatra with the Concert for the Americas. Bluhdorn had Paramount Pictures record the concert, which was shown all over the world. Viewers could see the Altos de Chavón artist village, the beauty of the landscapes, beaches and golf courses of Casa de Campo.

Kayser-Roth (a division of Gulf + Western), owned the Miss Universe pageant via its acquisition of Pacific Mills. Pacific Mills had invented the pageant to sell its Catalina Swimwear brand. Miss Universe 1977 was held in the Dominican Republic to promote tourism on the island.

Former Paramount Studios set designer Roberto Copa designed the artist village of Altos de Chavón in 1976 and it was built by Bluhdorn in the early 1980s. Bluhdorn's daughter, Dominique Bluhdorn, is the current president of the Altos de Chavón Cultural Center.

In 1975, Gulf + Western developed 7,000 acres (28 km) of the sugar mill's land into the Casa de Campo resort. Casa de Campo is home to three internationally renowned golf courses designed by Pete Dye – Teeth of the Dog, Dye Fore and Links.

In 1974, Bluhdorn stepped down as Chairman of Paramount and hired Barry Diller as Paramount's chairman and chief executive, making Diller, at age 32, the youngest studio chief in history and the first to come from the TV business.

Casa de Campo, an hour away from Santo Domingo, was a 7,000-acre (28 km) exclusive retreat founded by Bluhdorn in 1974. His wife, Yvette, would sell the property after his death in 1984 to the Fanjul Brothers of Palm Beach, Florida.

Paramount was suggested to Bluhdorn by Sumner Redstone and the acquisition was encouraged by Paramount's head of publicity, Martin Davis. It was during Gulf + Western's ownership of Paramount that it went from being number nine at the box office based upon total receipt sales, to number 1. After the marketing success of Love Story in 1970, Bluhdorn appointed Frank Yablans as president of the studio and Robert Evans as head of production. Together they oversaw the studio in its heyday, releasing such hits as The Godfather, The Godfather Part II , Chinatown.

Gulf + Western acquired Consolidated Cigar in 1968 and shifted the Canary Island cigar-making operation to La Romana.

In 1967, Gulf + Western paid $54 million for South Puerto Rico Sugar Company. Most of the company's operations were in the Dominican Republic, where it owned the extensive Central Romana sugar mill in La Romana and 300,000 acres (1,200 km) of land. Nearly half of the land was used to produce sugar cane and, at the peak of the cane-cutting season, the company employed 19,000 people, making it the country's largest private employer as well as the largest taxpayer and landowner.

Holdings of Gulf + Western were blue-chip names such as Paramount Pictures (acquired in 1966), Madison Square Garden, and Simon & Schuster publishing, the South Puerto Rico Sugar Company, the Consolidated Cigar Corporation, as well as less glamorous assets such as the New Jersey Zinc Company.

As Gulf + Western had purchased Paramount in 1966, Bluhdorn had plans to turn the island into a moviemaking mecca. To sell the idea he constantly invited producers, directors, writers and movie stars, to get them to appreciate the natural beauty of the country.

Three years later, he formed a company that would make him a millionaire at 30; in 1956, he acquired Michigan Bumper, a small auto parts company that eventually grew into Gulf and Western Industries, a conglomerate that ranked 61st in the Fortune 500 by 1981. According to Robert Evans, in 1970 Bluhdorn had told him: "Imagine, twelve years ago I was walking the streets selling typewriters door to door."

Charles married Yvette M. LeMarrec, formerly of Paris, about 1950.

In 1946, Bluhdorn went to work at the Cotton Exchange, earning $15 a week. Other accounts say that he emigrated to the United States in 1942 and served in the U.S. Army Air Forces.

Charles George Bluhdorn (born Karl Georg Blühdorn; September 20, 1926 – February 19, 1983) was an Austrian-born American industrialist.