Wealthiest Angelenos: 4, David Geffen

0

NET WORTH: $6.95 billion, up 17 percent

LAST YEAR: $5.9 billion

AGE: 72

RESIDENCE: Beverly Hills

SOURCE OF WEALTH: Entertainment

THE MONEY: The entertainment titan is enjoying a more than comfortable retirement. He owns around $1 billion worth of Apple stock, along with a large property portfolio on both coasts. Geffen also reportedly owns one of world’s most valuable art collections, including works by Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, valued at over $1.2 billion.

BUZZ: A dyslexic college dropout, Geffen used a fake UCLA degree to get job in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency. He worked his way up ladder before moving to Warner Bros. as an executive. He founded Geffen Records in 1980, launching stars Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana. He also backed Broadway musicals “Dreamgirls” and “Cats,” produced “Risky Business” and “Beetlejuice.” Geffen, along with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, founded DreamWorks SKG in 1994 and leaving the studio in 2008. A prominent philanthropist, Geffen made up for his fake UCLA degree by becoming the school’s largest donor: he has given $300 million in total. This year, he pledged $100 million toward renovation of New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, which will be known as David Geffen Hall. Geffen sold the Malibu Beach Inn for $80 million to Mani Bros. and shortly thereafter later sold a 10-unit Malibu oceanfront apartment building to Mani for $15 million. At $1.5 million a unit, it was highest per-unit price for apartments in Los Angeles County ever.

No posts to display