Fandango founder falls from New York hotel

The Hollywood sign in Los Angeles.

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J. Michael Cline, a financial executive and founder of the ticket company Fandango, died on Tuesday after falling from a high-rise hotel in New York City. He was 64 years old.

The New York Police Department said The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday that officers were called to the Kimberly Hotel on East 50th Street at 10:19 a.m. on Tuesday following emergency calls. “Upon arrival, officers found an unconscious and unresponsive male with injuries consistent with a fall from an elevated position,” the NYPD statement continued. “The investigation is ongoing.”

Emergency services pronounced the man, later identified as Cline, dead. The cause of death was not immediately known, but there are several reports that he committed suicide.

Cline, who earned his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, founded movie ticketing service Fandango in 2000. He stayed with the company, which was acquired by Comcast in 2007, for more than a decade before leaving in 2011. Fandango is now owned by NBCUniversal and Warner Bros.

He also founded several other companies, including R1 RCM, Accolade, Insureon, Everspring and Accumen, and was a founding principal of Accretive, LLC. Prior to Accretive, Cline was a general partner at General Atlantic and before that an associate at McKinsey & Company.

Cline also currently serves as executive chairman of investment firm Juxtapose.
LinkedIn and Chairman of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

He leaves behind his wife Pamela B. Cline and their six children.

THR asked Fandango for comment.