In the summer of 1964, a letter arrived at the William Morris Agency addressed to the head of personnel. It was a response from UCLA confirming that one of their new mailroom hires, David Geffen, had not in fact graduated from the university, as he had claimed. But Geffen worked in the mailroom. He opened the letter, altered it, resealed it, and sent it on its way. By the time anyone found out, he'd already been promoted.
That single move, bold, fast, and quietly brilliant, captures everything that would come to define David Geffen's career. Today, Geffen has a net worth of $9 billion. He has founded or co-founded three dominant institutions in modern entertainment: Asylum Records, Geffen Records, and DreamWorks SKG. He owns a $300 million real estate portfolio, one of the most valuable art collections on Earth, and a 450-foot yacht that regularly hosts Hollywood and tech royalty. And it all started with a teeny tiny white lie in a mailroom.
A Hustler from Brooklyn
Born in 1943 to Jewish immigrant parents in Brooklyn, Geffen grew up in a modest apartment above his mother's corset shop. He was a below-average student who flunked out of multiple colleges. But what he lacked in academic discipline, he made up for in hustle. After bouncing between New York and Los Angeles, Geffen landed a job as an usher at CBS and then as a receptionist on a television series. He was fired quickly for offering unsolicited script notes to the producers.
A casting director suggested he try being an agent instead. Geffen looked in the phone book for the biggest talent agency ad he could find and landed in the mailroom at William Morris. That's where he forged the letter. That's where he became a junior agent. And that's where he learned how Hollywood really worked.
The Man Behind the Stars
Geffen's next move was into artist management. In the late 1960s, he began working with emerging musicians like Laura Nyro, Jackson Browne, and Crosby, Stills & Nash. He was relentless, persuasive, and fiercely loyal. When he couldn't get a label deal for Browne, a friend at Atlantic Records suggested Geffen start his own label. He took the advice.
In 1970, with his mailroom buddy Elliot Roberts, Geffen launched Asylum Records. He named it after the artists no one else would sign. But Geffen had an ear for outsiders. He signed the Eagles, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, and Linda Ronstadt. Within two years, Warner Communications bought Asylum and merged it with Elektra. Geffen received stock and became a millionaire.
In 1975, he moved into film as vice chairman of Warner Bros., but soon stepped away after being misdiagnosed with terminal cancer. He retired, but not for long. Three years later, doctors admitted they were wrong. Geffen, still alive and now very wealthy, came back with a vengeance.
Becoming A Manager
Always gregarious and fun, he had begun to make friends in the music community and ultimately decided to focus on being a personal manager. His first major clients included Laura Nyro, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and Jackson Browne, all relative unknowns when they began working with him. He was tenacious about building the careers of his artists, and he quickly became known as a fair, ambitious, and loyal manager. Watching him attempt to secure a record deal for one of his artists, a record executive at Atlantic suggested he start his own label. Recognizing good advice when he heard it, David Geffen launched Asylum Records. He seemed to have an unerring eye for artists whose sound existed outside of the box, but who would come to revolutionize music. He signed the Eagles, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, Linda Ronstadt, and Judee Sill, to name just a few. Warner Communications ended up buying Asylum, merging it with its record company, Elektra.
David ran Elektra/Asylum until 1975, when he was invited to take over Warner Bros.' film studios. Though he had been able to figure out how to succeed in the agent and music worlds, his foray into running a film studio was not particularly successful. He was also ill and was subsequently diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer. He retired and stepped away from the Hollywood lifestyle. However, three years later, he was still alive and kicking, and it was revealed that he was actually cancer-free and had been misdiagnosed. He dusted himself off and went back to Hollywood.
Geffen Records & A Billion-Dollar Payday
Now re-energized and focused, in 1980, David returned to his first love, music, and launched Geffen Records. The label's first year was tumultuous. He signed Donna Summer first and released her album, "The Wanderer". However, her former label retaliated, releasing multiple tracks from her 1979 album, "Bad Girls", and a greatest hits compilation. Though "The Wanderer" spawned a hit single, it was buried in the influx of other Donna Summer material and the advent of the New Wave sound. That same year, he released John Lennon's album, "Double Fantasy". It was a coup for the new label, but it quickly turned bittersweet when Lennon was assassinated that year.
From there, he went on to sign and work with a "who's who" of music heavy-hitters, including Olivia Newton-John, Elton John, Sonic Youth, Cher, Aerosmith, Peter Gabriel, Whitesnake, Blink-182, Nirvana, Guns N' Roses, Lifehouse, Pat Metheny, and Neil Young, among many others. Along the way, he sold Geffen Records in one of the largest music deals in music history and launched another label called DGC Records, which was equally successful.
In 1990, Geffen sold the label to MCA for 10 million shares of MCA stock. When MCA was acquired by Matsushita in 1991 for $6 billion, Geffen's stock was worth roughly $700 million. Adjusted for inflation, that would be around $1.3 billion today. He also secured a four-year employment contract and famously gave his longtime secretary 1% of the sale, over $5 million.
Geffen remained a dominant force in music throughout the 1990s, overseeing the continued success of Geffen Records and its alternative imprint, DGC Records, which released Nirvana's "Nevermind."
David Geffen / Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images
DreamWorks: His Third Empire
He also decided to try his hand at film production again and launched the Geffen Film Company. Like Asylum and Geffen Records, it was a success out of the gate. The company's first project, "Risky Business", was box office gold and made a star out of the unknown, Tom Cruise. He went on to produce the film versions of "Little Shop of Horrors", "Beetlejuice", and "Interview with the Vampire", as well as the Broadway productions of "Dreamgirls", "Cats", "Miss Saigon", and "M. Butterfly".
In 1994, David teamed up with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg to form DreamWorks SKG. The movie studio has gone to release a steady stream of hit movies, including "Amistad", "Deep Impact", "Saving Private Ryan", "American Beauty", "Gladiator", "Chicken Run", "Almost Famous", "Meet the Parents", "Castaway", "Shrek", "A Beautiful Mind", "Minority Report", "Catch Me If You Can", "Old School", "War of the Worlds", "Red Eye", "Match Point", "Revolutionary Road", "The Lovely Bones", "Cowboys and Aliens", "Real Steel", and "Lincoln".
In 2005, Viacom acquired DreamWorks' live-action division for $1.6 billion, including $400 million in assumed debt. Geffen stepped away from DreamWorks entirely in 2008.
With his massive wealth and influence, David Geffen is proof that you can come from completely ordinary beginnings and arrive at greatness. He was an average student with no contacts in the entertainment industry, but he still managed to become one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood. Sometimes it's not about where you're from, it's about where you choose to go. David Geffen clearly chose to go all the way to the top.
What He Did With the Money
David Geffen never married during his early rise, had no children, and never reported to a boardroom. He kept tight control of his assets. Over time, he diversified away from music and into real estate, contemporary art, and yachts.
His real estate portfolio includes a Central Park West apartment bought for $54 million, multiple homes on Malibu's Carbon Beach, and a former East Hampton estate. In 2020, he sold the Jack L. Warner estate in Beverly Hills to Jeff Bezos for $165 million, at the time, the most expensive home sale in California history.
His art collection is legendary. He has owned pieces by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Jasper Johns. In 2016, he sold a de Kooning and a Pollock to hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin for a combined $500 million. Estimates put his collection's total value between $2 billion and $3 billion.
And then there's Rising Sun, the 454-foot yacht originally commissioned by Larry Ellison. Geffen bought him out in 2010 and has since hosted guests like Oprah Winfrey, Paul McCartney, and Leonardo DiCaprio. He previously sold another yacht, Pelorus, for $240 million.
The Real Lesson of the Mailroom
David Geffen's story is not about lucky breaks. It's about recognizing doors that were closed, then quietly jamming them open. He didn't finish college. He didn't inherit a thing. He forged a letter, signed the right people, sold at the right time, and never stopped moving.
He didn't just rise from the mailroom. He turned it into a launchpad and then built a $9 billion empire on top of it.