Background and career
Matthew Douglas Salinger ( SAL-in-jər; born February 13, 1960) is an American actor and producer known for his appearances in the films Revenge of the Nerds and Captain America.
Salinger was born February 13, 1960, in Windsor, Vermont, to author J. D. Salinger, known for The Catcher in the Rye, and psychologist Alison Claire Douglas. His maternal grandfather was British art critic Robert Langton Douglas. He has one sister, Margaret Salinger. His father was of paternal Lithuanian-Jewish descent, and of maternal German, Irish, and Scottish descent. Salinger attended North Country School in Lake Placid, New York, for junior high school. He graduated from Phillips Academy Andover and attended Princeton University before graduating from Columbia University with a degree in art history and drama.
Salinger made his film debut in 1984 in Revenge of the Nerds and played Captain America in the 1990 film Captain America. He subsequently appeared in films including What Dreams May Come and on television in episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and 24. Salinger has produced several independent films, including Let the Devil Wear Black, and Mojave Moon. Salinger made his Broadway debut in 1985 in Bill C. Davis's short-lived Dancing in the End Zone, performing at the Ritz Theater alongside veteran actresses Pat Carroll and Dorothy Lyman. In 2000, he produced the off-Broadway play The Syringa Tree, which received a Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award, Outer Critic's Circle Award, and the Village Voice Obie Award for Best Play of the Year in 2001.
Salinger married jewelry designer Betsy Jane Becker in 1985. They live in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and have two sons, Gannon and Avery. Unlike his sister, Margaret, who wrote a 1999 memoir about her childhood titled Dream Catcher, Salinger has sought to protect his father's privacy. A few weeks after Margaret's book was published, Salinger wrote a letter to The New York Observer, criticizing his sister's "gothic tales of our supposed childhood."
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
