Shane Black Movies and Career Information

Shane Black (born December 16, 1961) is an American actor, screenwriter and film director. He is responsible for the some of the biggest blockbuster action films of the late 1980s and early 1990s, including work on Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout. Black was born and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Patricia Ann James and Paul Black. His father was a football star in college and later founded his own printing business. Black's family moved to Fullerton, California. He attended Sunny Hills High School, a renowned magnet school. He studied theater at UCLA and graduated in 1983 with the intent to become an actor. While looking for a way to make some income as he struggled to find acting roles, his friend Fred Dekker encouraged Black to try his hand at screenwriting. Remembering what he learned from a dramatic writing class he took in college, he borrowed a typewriter and went to work on his first script. At age 23, Black wrote his second screenplay, Lethal Weapon, in six weeks. His agent David Greenblatt sold the screenplay in three days. The film would become a successful franchise and help Mel Gibson become a superstar celebrity. Black's first acting role came in