Michael Lerner (actor)

Michael Charles Lerner was born on June 22, 1941,{{cite news |last1=McCarthy |first1=Lauren |title=Michael Lerner, 'Elf' and 'Barton Fink' Actor, Dies at 81 |work=The New York Times |date=April 10, 2023 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/10/arts/michael-lerner-dead.html |access-date=April 10, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410210336/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/10/arts/michael-lerner-dead.html/ |archive-date=April 10, 2023}} in Brooklyn, New York City, of Romanian-Jewish descent, the second of three sons to Blanche and George Lerner; according to Lerner, his father "liked to think he was an antiques dealer, but in all actuality he was a junk dealer."{{Cite web|title=Interview with Michael Lerner|first=Michael|last=Kaplan|work=Cigar Aficionado|date=January 1999|access-date=November 23, 2013|url=http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Profiles/People_Profile/0,2540,71,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100310194726/http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Profiles/People_Profile/0,2540,71,00.html|archive-date=March 10, 2010}} He was raised in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and in Solon, Ohio. His younger brother Ken, nephew Sam, and niece Jenny are also actors.{{cite web|url=https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800018400/bio|title=Michael Lerner Biography|website=Yahoo! Movies|access-date=August 23, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522092433/https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800018400/bio|archive-date=May 22, 2011}} His older brother, Arnold, died in 2004.

Lerner made his first television appearance at the age of 13, as a "quiz kid" on a television program hosted by a local sportscaster. He played Willy Loman in a production of Death of a Salesman at Brooklyn College, where Joel Zwick was a classmate. The experience convinced him that he wanted to be an actor, rather than an English professor. He also appeared as Sir Toby Belch in a production of Twelfth Night directed by David Mamet in Greenwich Village; William H. Macy was also in that production.{{Cite web |date=April 28, 2016 |title=Michael Lerner on Eddie Murphy, Barton Fink, and Woody Allen's worst movie |url=https://www.avclub.com/michael-lerner-on-eddie-murphy-barton-fink-and-woody-1798246725 |access-date=April 9, 2023 |website=The A.V. Club |language=en}} After graduating from Brooklyn College, where he studied acting, he received a scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a master's degree in English drama. Although his then-wife still thought he should become an English professor, Lerner still wanted to be an actor; he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study theater in London for two years, at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. While there, he lived in a flat with Yoko Ono and John Lennon. In 1968, he appeared in Ono's short experimental film Smile, among other projects.{{Citation needed |date=April 2023}} "She made a movie {{sic|comprised |hide=y|of}} bare asses walking on a treadmill", he once said. "I’m in it and so is Paul McCartney. Plus I’m doing narration about censorship and all that crap."

In 1968, Lerner returned to the San Francisco Bay Area and joined the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.). At the age of 24 he appeared as "Hieronymous the Miser" in a KPFA radio production of Michel de Ghelderode's Breugelesque play, Red Magic.{{cn|date=April 2023}}

Lerner moved to Los Angeles in 1969, where he appeared in a production of Little Murders, a play by Jules Feiffer that was later adapted into a film by Alan Arkin. He also began making guest appearances in television shows such as The Brady Bunch, The Odd Couple, M*A*S*H, Banacek and The Rockford Files. In 1969, Lerner appeared on The Doris Day Show, season two episode nine entitled “Singles Only”. In 1974, he appeared in the teleplay The Missiles of October, playing Pierre Salinger.

In 1970, Lerner made his film debut in Alex in Wonderland; director Paul Mazursky had seen his production of Little Murders and enjoyed his performance. He then went on to appear in supporting roles in various Hollywood movies such as The Candidate, St. Ives and the 1981 remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice. In 1991, after co-starring in Harlem Nights, Lerner played film producer Jack Lipnick in Barton Fink, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He based the character in part on legendary film mogul Louis B. Mayer; according to his brother Ken, he was working on a screenplay about Mayer when he died.

From 1996 to 1997, Lerner played Mel Horowitz on the television series Clueless. In 1997, he would play Joy Miller's father Jerry in The Beautician and the Beast. Lerner's later projects include the Christmas comedy Elf (2003) and Poster Boy (2004), as well as television programs such as Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Entourage.{{cn|date=April 2023}}

In 2002, he appeared in the West End production of Up for Grabs with Madonna. He also appeared on BBC Radio Four in 2008 as a member of the cast of David Quantick's Radio Four's series One. He portrayed Senator Brickman in the Marvel Comics/Twentieth Century Fox film, X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). In 2013, Lerner appeared in a Season 4 episode of Glee as Sidney Greene, an investor in the revival of Broadway musical Funny Girl. His character is on the panel of judges, watching the Rachel Berry character audition for the lead role. He reprised his role as Sidney in Season 5 in several New York-based episodes of the series, as Funny Girl opens on Broadway.{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/lat-cindy-backlot-la0016213540-20140316-photo.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140519221811/http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/lat-cindy-backlot-la0016213540-20140316-photo.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 19, 2014|title=Lea Michele and Michael Lerner|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=August 23, 2014|quote=Lea Michele and Michael Lerner on the set of "Glee" on March 16, 2014, in New York City.}}

In addition to his acting career, Lerner was a collector of rare books, an aficionado of Cuban cigars, and—by his own account—a very good poker player. He was missing the tip of one index finger, due to an injury suffered while cutting a tongue sandwich while working at a deli in New York City.

Lerner died of complications from brain seizures at a hospital in Burbank, California, on April 8, 2023, at the age of 81.{{cite news|url= https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/michael-lerner-dead-actor-barton-fink-harlem-nights-eight-men-out-dies-1235369893/ |title= Michael Lerner, Actor in 'Barton Fink,' 'Harlem Nights' and 'Eight Men Out,' Dies at 81 |work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=April 9, 2023 |access-date=April 9, 2023}}

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{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|nm0503627|Michael Lerner}}
• {{discogs artist|Michael Lerner (4)}}
• [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/252052033/michael-lerner Michael Lerner] at Find a Grave

{{Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor}}

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Category:1941 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:American Conservatory Theater alumni

Category:20th-century American Jews

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:21st-century American male actors

Category:Alumni of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:American male voice actors

Category:American people of Romanian-Jewish descent

Category:American people of Jewish descent

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Category:Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Category:Jewish American male actors

Category:Male actors from Brooklyn

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Category:People from Red Hook, Brooklyn

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