Michael Charles Lerner (June 22, 1941 – April 8, 2023) was an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Jack Lipnick in Barton Fink (1991). Lerner also played Arnold Rothstein in Eight Men Out (1988), Bugsy Calhoune in Harlem Nights (1989), Phil Gillman in Amos & Andrew (1993), The Warden in No Escape (1994), Mel Horowitz on the television series Clueless, Jerry Miller in The Beautician and the Beast (1997), Mayor Ebert in Roland Emmerich's Godzilla (1998), Mr. Greenway in Elf (2003), and Senator Brickman in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014).
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Early life
Michael Charles Lerner was born on June 22, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York City, of Romanian-Jewish descent, the second of three sons to Blanche (née Halpern) 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." He was raised in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and in Solon, Ohio. His younger brother Ken, nephew Sam, and niece Jenny are also actors. His older brother, Arnold, died in 2004.
Lerner attended Lafayette High School, where he acted for the first time, portraying a donkey in a school play. In his teenage years, he worked at a delicatessen in Brighton Beach, owned by his older brother Arnold, which Lerner described as the main source of income by the family.
Career
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. 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 at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art for two years. While in London, he lived in a flat with Yoko Ono, before her marriage to John Lennon. In 1968, he appeared in Ono's short experimental film Smile, among other projects. "She made a movie comprised 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."
Upon returning to the United States, Lerner worked at several delicatessen shops in New York City, regularly getting fired and losing a portion of one index finger in a work accident. In 1968, Lerner returned to the San Francisco Bay Area and joined the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.). He taught at San Francisco State University for a year. 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.
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.
Personal life
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. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, he was in a relationship with actress Diane Baker. Lerner stated that he was briefly married before receiving his Fulbright Scholarship, but that the marriage was not recorded as it was annulled shortly after.
Death
Lerner died at a hospital in Burbank, California, on April 8, 2023, at the age of 81. His brother Ken attributed Lerner's cause of death to complications with brain seizures he experienced in November 2022.
