Michael Lerner, a veteran character actor who received an Oscar nomination for his performance in Barton Fink (available on Prime Video), has died as announced by his nephew, actor Sam Lerner, in a post on social media. He was 81 and no further details about Lerner’s death have been released.
“We lost a legend last night,” Sam Lerner wrote on Instagram on Sunday. “It’s hard to put into words how brilliant my Uncle Michael was and how influential he was to me. His stories always inspired me and made me fall in love with acting. He was the coolest, most confident and talented uncle.”
A star who has always been in the background
Michael Lerner was born in Brooklyn (New York) in 1941 and studied drama at Brooklyn College. He was later awarded a Fulbright scholarship and spent two years in London before being invited to join the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.
A San Francisco agent discovered him and brought him to Los Angeles, where he began his Hollywood career. With film and television credits dating back to the 1960s, Lerner’s Hollywood career spanned several decades.
His early work in the 1960s and 1970s included appearances on television shows such as The Doris Day Show, The Bob Newhart Show and MAS*H.
His first film came in 1970 as the character Leo in “Alex in Wonderland” opposite Donald Sutherland and Ellen Burstyn. Lerner went on to appear in films such as The Ski Bum, The Candidate and Outlaw Blues.
The actor appeared in several episodes of Hill Street Blues and Melba in the mid-1980s, before starring in Barton Fink in 1991. His portrayal of studio executive Jack Lipnick, which starred alongside John Turturro, John Goodman and Judy Davis, earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
During the 1980s and 2010s, Lerner played Fulton in the Christmas classic Elf, opposite Will Farrell, and in TV series such as Law & Order: SVU, The Good Wife and Glee. Today we say goodbye to him.
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