DAVID GEFFEN
David Lawrence Geffen, born February 21, 1943 in New York, is a record executive, film and theatrical producer,
and philanthropist.
Geffen attended public schools there and for a very, very short period of time, the University of Texas at Austin,
but dropped out.
Geffen is best known for creating Asylum Records in 1971 and Geffen Records in 1980, and one of
founders of Dreamworks SKG.
He began his entertainment career in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency, worked up to become an agent.
Geffen founded Asylum Records in 1971 after leaving William Morris, he signed artists such as Jackson Browne (for whom
the label was founded), John David Souther, Judee Sill, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, and Glenn Frey (who Geffen
encouraged to form The Eagles, with Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner), The biggest 'act' to sign was
Bob Dylan, Asylum was acquired by Warner Communications and merged with Elektra Records in 1972 to become
Elektra/Asylum Records. David Geffen remained in charge until 1975, when he resigned as director, do to health reasons.
In 1980, he founded Geffen Records (namesake). After releasing John Lennon's album Double Fantasy in December of that
year (because, Lennon said, Geffen Records was the only label with enough confidence in him to agree to a deal without
hearing the record first), Geffen found themselves with a massive seller, albeit in tragic circumstances, when Lennon
was murdered later that month. This helped bring the new label a mass of attention. Geffen Records/DGC became well
known also for releasing works by the likes of Cher, Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, Nirvana, Neil Young, and Weezer.
Through the Geffen Film Company (again, namesake), David Geffen produced dark-tinged comedies such as (the 1986 version
of) Little Shop of Horrors and Beetlejuice. Geffen was the Broadway backer for the musicals Dreamgirls and Cats.
In 1994, Geffen co-founded the DreamWorks studio with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Geffen, who is gay, was the subject of a persistent but false 1990s rumor that he had married actor Keanu Reeves.
Before he 'came out', he dated Cher and Marlo Thomas in the late 70's.
Geffen is a prominent philanthropist, renowned for his support to medical research, AIDS organizations, the arts and
theatre.
According to Forbes Magazine ("The 400 Richest Americans of 2004") and other sources, Geffen has pledged to give
whatever money he makes from now on to charity (although he has not specified specific charities or the manner of
his giving). In 2002, he announced a $200 million unrestricted endowment for UCLA Medical School.
Geffen's Malibu home on the Pacific Coast Highway has been a battlefront in an ongoing struggle between property
owners and beachgoers over access to public beaches in front of private residences. In 2002, Geffen sued to block
access to the public beach in front of his home. In 2005, facing a rising tide of anger, Geffen relented and allowed
access through a non-profit group.
Geffen is a keen collector of American artists' work, including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning.
In October 2006 he sold two paintings by Jasper Johns and a de Kooning from his collection for a combined sum of
$143.5 million. This prompted speculation that he was storing up resources for a bid to buy the Los Angeles Times
Newspaper.
On 3 November 2006 the New York Times broke the story that Geffen had sold Pollock's 1948 painting Number 5 from his
collection for a world record price of $140 million (£73.35m) to a secretive Mexican financier, David Martinez
(the founder of London-based Fintech Advisory Ltd, a financial house that specialises in buying Third World debt).
If correct Number 5 became the most expensive work of art ever sold (outstripping the $134 million paid in October
2006 for Gustav Klimt's portrait Adele Bloch-Bauer I by cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder).
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