  joel silver (born july 14, 1952) is an american film producer, known for action films like lethal weapon, die hard and the matrix trilogy. he is owner of silver pictures and co-founder of dark castle entertainment. he has been a rival to michael eisner, former c.e.o of the walt disney company, since their days at paramount pictures. ==life and career== silver grew up in south orange, new jersey, the son of a writer and a public relations executive.http://www.filmreference.com/film/52/joel-silver.html he attended columbia high school in maplewood, new jersey, where, along with jared kass, he is credited with inventing the sport of ultimate (then known as "ultimate frisbee").collegiate ultimate frisbee began at lafayette in 1970, he entered lafayette college, where he formed the first collegiate ultimate team. 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. silver appears on-screen at the beginning of who framed roger rabbit as raoul j. raoul, the director of the animated short something's cookin. silver directed "split personality", (1992), an episode of the hbo horror anthology tales from the crypt. he currently runs two production compan
1952_births American_entertainment_industry_businesspeople American_film_producers Lafayette_College_alumni Living_people People_from_South_Orange,_New_Jersey Tisch_School_of_the_Arts_alumni Ultimate_(sport)