David Geffen

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David Lawrence Geffen (born February 21, 1943 in New York City , New York ) is an American music , film producer and philanthropist . His net worth was listed by Forbes Magazine at $ 6.9 billion in September 2014 , making him the 211th richest person in the world.

Life

David Geffen is a son of Israeli immigrants. At a young age he dropped out of the University of Texas at Austin . His entertainment career began in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency , Hollywood's premier talent agency. In 1967/68 he signed Laura Nyro as one of his first stars , and soon afterwards he became the agent and promoter of Joni Mitchell , Jackson Browne , Linda Ronstadt , The Eagles and other artists.

He initially moved to Warner Bros. and then founded his own record label Asylum Records in 1972 and, after its profitable sale, in 1975, Geffen Records , which signed artists such as Cher , Aerosmith , Asia , Guns N 'Roses and John Lennon . In the 1980s, Neil Young signed with Geffen; the latter guaranteed him extensive artistic freedom, which, with all his flair for business success, had been a trademark of Geffen from an early age. Neil Young then produced his most experimental, but least commercially successful (but critically acclaimed) albums - much to Geffen's displeasure. Neil Young eventually returned to Reprise Records . Even Nirvana produced some of their songs on the label of Geffen.

In 1994 Geffen founded the film studio DreamWorks SKG together with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg .

David Geffen is openly gay and a prominent philanthropist known for his support for medical research , AIDS organizations, artists, and the theater .

According to an article in Forbes magazine ("The 400 Richest Americans of 2004"), Geffen said that any money he made in the entertainment industry from now on would be donated to charities. In 2002, he announced a 200 million US dollars doped donation to the UCLA Medical School in which the David Geffen School of Medicine named after him. In December 2012, he donated an additional $ 100 million to set up the David Geffen Medical Scholarship Fund to cover all of the education costs for the school's top graduates.

On September 24, 2015, New York's Avery Fisher Hall was renamed David Geffen Hall after Geffen donated $ 100 million to the famous concert hall. The hall is the home of the New York Philharmonic .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Luisa Kroll: Profile of David Geffen. www.forbes.com, accessed September 22, 2014 (English).
  2. ^ Luisa Kroll: World's Richest People - David Geffen. www.forbes.com, February 26, 2004, accessed September 22, 2014 .
  3. ↑ David Geffen School of Medicine ( Memento June 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Geffen, David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Geffen, David Lawrence (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American music producer, film producer, and philanthropist
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York, United States