Michael Lerner (actor)

Michael Charles Lerner 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).

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 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." His older brother, Arnold, died in 2004. ==Career==

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. ==Personal life==

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. 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. ==Death==

Death

Lerner died of complications from brain seizures at a hospital in Burbank, California, on April 8, 2023, at the age of 81. ==Selected filmography==

Selected filmography

Films Television ==References==

Source: Wikipedia ↗

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