Joel Silver

Joel Silver
Silver at the Tribeca Film Festival in May 2008
Born	(1952-07-14) July 14, 1952 (age 69) South Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Film producer
Years active	1976–present
Spouse(s)	Karyn Fields ​ (m. 1999)​
Children	2

Joel Silver (born July 14, 1952) is an American film producer.

Life and career[]

Silver was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, the son of a writer and a public relations executive.^[1] His family is Jewish.^[2] He attended Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. During his time there, 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.^[3] 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, as well as the first two films of the Predator series and 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. This was a prank Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis pulled on then-Disney CEO, Michael Eisner, as Eisner and Silver despised each other since their days at Paramount Pictures in the early 1980s, especially with the issues they faced making 48 Hrs.. Silver trimmed his beard off, paid his own expenses, and asked to not have his name in initial cast lists. Reportedly, when production wrapped, due to the fact that Silver was unrecognizable, Eisner questioned who played Raoul and was told it was Silver, at which point, Eisner shrugged and praised his performance.

Silver directed "Split Personality", (1992), an episode of the HBO horror anthology Tales from the Crypt. He currently runs two production companies, Silver Pictures, and Dark Castle Entertainment, co-owned by Robert Zemeckis.

Silver is also known for his eccentric temper, inspiring characters based on him in movies such as Grand Canyon, True Romance and I'll Do Anything.^[4] The character of Les Grossman (played by Tom Cruise) in the movie Tropic Thunder, is a parody of Silver.^[5]

He also voiced "the police chief" in the Osmosis Jones film as an uncredited role.^[6]

On June 24, 2019, Silver Pictures CEO Hal Sadoff announced that Silver had resigned from the company.^[7] Two days later, The Hollywood Reporter cited unnamed sources claiming that Joel Silver's overspending, dearth of recent box-office hits, and an animosity between Silver and financier Daryl Katz led to Silver's departure.^[8] No official reason has yet been given by the Katz Group, Silver Pictures, or Joel Silver himself.^[9][8]

Frank Lloyd Wright houses and automobiles[]

Silver is well known as an aficionado of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1984, he bought the Wright-designed Storer House in Hollywood and made considerable investments to restore it to its original condition. The Storer House's squarish relief ornament then became the company logo of Silver Pictures. Silver sold it in 2002 for $2.9 million. In 1986, he purchased the long-neglected C. Leigh Stevens Auldbrass Plantation in Yemassee, South Carolina, and has been restoring it since then. Both restorations have been managed and supervised by the architect Eric Lloyd Wright (grandson of Frank Lloyd Wright).

Silver has also owned and restored two Lincoln Continental automobiles previously owned by Wright, one a 1940 convertible and the other a 1941 coupe. After the 1940 car was damaged, Wright had a body shop rebuild the car based on his own custom redesign. For a time both cars were displayed in the Storer House.^[10][11]

Carmel Musgrove incident[]

On August 19, 2015, Silver's 28-year-old assistant Carmel Musgrove drowned in a lagoon while attending a celebration with Silver in Bora Bora, on the occasion of the marriage between Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux. Later, in August 2017, Musgrove's family sued Silver and his assistant Martin Herold, arguing the latter had provided her with cocaine, which, along with alcohol consumption and exhaustion from work, they alleged had contributed to her death.^[12][13]

Filmography[]

Film[]

Television[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joel Silver.

• Joel Silver at IMDb
• Silver on Warner Bros