Eisner grew up in
Greenwich Village and attended
Little Red Schoolhouse and Elisabeth Irwin High School. worked as a songwriter and played drums for
The Strangers, a New York rock band. He wrote a number of songs that were recorded by various artists in the 1960s, including "No Sun Today" (
Buffalo Springfield), "Emily's Illness" (
Nora Guthrie), and "Too Young to Be One" (
The Turtles). He received his B.A. from
Columbia University in 1970 and J.D. from
Columbia Law School in 1973. In 1980, he was recruited by
David Geffen to be head of his production company and oversaw the production of films such as
Risky Business and
Beetlejuice, as well as
Broadway plays
M. Butterfly and
Cats. After retiring from the entertainment industry, Eisner founded the
Young Eisner Scholars program in 1998. The program identifies gifted students from disadvantaged schools in
Los Angeles and places them in the city's best prep and magnet schools. The program has also mobilized $50 million in financial aid and scholarships to fund its scholars’ college tuition and fees, and has placed participants in top-tier universities in the country. Eisner was also featured in Gladwell's podcast,
Revisionist History. He was named "Innovator of the Year" in education by
The Wall Street Journal in 2012, == Personal life and family ==