David Geffen

Owner

David Geffen Co.

THE LATEST: In February, Geffen sold the Jack Warner Estate in Beverly Hills to Amazon's Jeff Bezos for $165 million. The 1,000-seat Geffen Theater, funded by a $25 million gift from Geffen, will be a centerpiece of the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, slated to open in December on Museum Row.

BACKGROUND: Geffen's first job was in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency. From that humble beginning, he rose to the position of talent agent, representing musicians such as Crosby Stills and Nash. In 1972, he founded Asylum Records and then went on to start Geffen Records. Geffen partnered with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg in 1994 to launch SKG film studio. His philanthropic efforts include the Geffen Academy at UCLA, Westwood's Geffen Playhouse and David Geffen Hall at New York's Lincoln Center. His 2017 gift of $150 million to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was the largest in the museum's history.

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