Joel Silver

Joel Silver
Silver at the Tribeca Film Festival in May 2008
Born	(1952-07-14) July 14, 1952 (age 64) South Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Film producer
Years active	1976-present
Spouse(s)	Karyn Fields (1999–present; 1 child)

Joel Silver (born July 14, 1952) is an American film producer, most well known for action films including the Lethal Weapon series, The Matrix trilogy, the first two Die Hard movies, and Predator. He is the owner of Silver Pictures and co-founder of Dark Castle Entertainment. He has been a rival to Michael Eisner, former CEO of The Walt Disney Company, since their days at Paramount Pictures.

Silver was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, the son of a writer and a public relations executive. His family is Jewish. He attended Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. During his time here, Silver, Buzzy Hellring and Jonny Hines created the rules for what he called "Ultimate Frisbee"! He was later inducted into the USA Ultimate Hall of Fame as a result of this. He finished his undergraduate studies at the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Silver began his career at Lawrence Gordon Productions, where he eventually became president of motion pictures for the company. He earned his first screen credit as the associate producer on The Warriors and, with Gordon, produced 48 Hrs., Streets of Fire, and Brewster's Millions. In 1985, he formed Silver Pictures and produced successful action films such as Commando (1985), the Lethal Weapon franchise, the first two films of the Die Hard series, and the The Matrix franchise of action films.