ABSTRACT
American manager, record company executive, film company executive, born in Brooklyn. David Geffen rose from the mailroom at William Morris to become one of the most powerful people in Hollywood. As an agent, his first major client was singersongwriter Laura Nyro; he became a millionaire by selling her song publishing to CBS Records in 1969. He then formed a management company with fellow agent Elliot Roberts that handled the careers of such folk-rock performers as Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young and Joni Mitchell. In 1972, he formed Asylum Records to release the work of new clients like Jackson Browne and the Eagles. He sold Asylum to Warner Communications, Inc., for $7 million in 1973; Asylum then was merged with Elektra/ Nonesuch Records, and he became president of the combined subsidiary. Under his aegis, the company prospered, even signing Bob Dylan away from Columbia Records. (He later returned.) Geffen became vice-chairman of Warner Bros. Pictures in 1975, but he dropped out of the entertainment business due to a cancer scare in 1976. He returned in 1980 and formed Geffen Records, quickly signing such major stars as John Lennon and Elton John and developing hard-rock acts like Guns N’ Roses. He also became involved in producing Broadway musicals and movies. Geffen Records had a distribution deal with Warner during the 1980s, but in 1990, Geffen sold it to MCA (now Universal Music Group) in a deal that reportedly made him a billionaire. In 1994, he, Steven Spielberg, and Jeffrey Katzenberg formed the movie studio DreamWorks, including a related record label.
