Chris Crist

Chris Crist

Chris Crist, 85, passed away of heart disease at home in Palm Springs with his wife, Cheryl, by his side.

Born in Salinas, California he attended Salinas High School where he became interested in the theater and joined the thespians. He met an unknown actor at the time, James Dean, while he was filming East of Eden in Salinas and hung out with him for several days when he wasn't shooting thinking he was an extra in the movie and not knowing he was one of the leads until the movie was released. Dean gave him the advice to go to New York if he wanted to become an actor, and Chris thought " what does this guy know!" So at age 19 he began a career in entertainment, performing comedy routines in the area and eventually in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In 1957 he joined PSA Airlines in San Francisco for several years and served in many capacities including air traffic controller. When he was offered a spot as a D.J. at KDON radio in Monterey, California he began a new career for two years which led to the record industry. For the next 32 years Chris was the promotion and marketing manager for the top record companies including Warner Bros. Records, Capitol Records and United Artists Records. After joining RCA Records in San Francisco in 1966 he was soon introduced to a new group just signed, Jefferson Airplane, and was in the studio when they recorded their first album. In 1967 RCA had a box seat at the first Monterey Pop Festival where he saw Janice Joplin, who had performed the night before, hanging out on the sidelines and invited her and her entourage to sit with them. It was also around this time he met San Francisco Giant, Willie McCovey, and invited him to a promotion party he was hosting at the Playboy Club. The two would become lifelong friends and Chris accompanied Willie when he was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame.

Moving on to Los Angeles as Regional Promotional Mgr. for Columbia/Epic records Chris worked with a young Rod Stewart who was the lead singer of The Jeff Beck Group at the time. Also on the label was an impressive Jimmy Page and the Yardbirds.

The pinnacle of his career was joining Warner Bros. Records in Los Angeles in 1975. For the next 22 years, until he retired in Palm Springs, he had the pleasure of working with Frank Sinatra, Fleetwood Mac, Van Halen, Prince, Madonna, The Doobie Brothers, Elton John, George Harrison and many more.

Chris is survived by his wife of 48 years, Cheryl, his two daughters Christyl Everleigh (son-in-law Dan Zelinski) and Tianna Campbell.

No services are planned at this time.