Jimmy Nederlander is the chairman of the Nederlander Organization, one of the largest theater chains in New York, and the patriarch of New York's most prominent theater family.

The Nederlander Organization was founded by David Nederlander in 1912 with a single theater in Detroit; his son, Jimmy, joined the company in the early 1940s after dropping out of college. Jimmy was determined to expand the family business and purchased venues in Cleveland, Chicago, and Minneapolis with his father in the 1950s and 60s, before landing in New York in '65 after he acquired the Palace Theatre on 47th and Broadway. Following his father's death in 1967, Jimmy continued to expand and today the Nederlander Organization owns and/or runs the Minskoff, Neil Simon, Palace, Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, the Brooks Atkinson, Lunt-Fontanne, Marquis, and Nederlander Theatre, as well as venues in Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Tucson, Detroit, and London. The company has produced (or co-produced) more than 300 plays and musicals over the years, including such classics as Noises Off, La Cage aux Folles, and Wicked. A legendary figure on Broadway—he received a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2004—Nederlander continues to work at the company along with his son, Jimmy Jr. [Image via Getty, with James L. Nederlander, Jr.]