Michael Lerner, Oscar-Nominated ‘Barton Fink’ Actor, Dies at 81
Michael Lerner, the prolific character actor nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of a Louis B. Mayer proxy in Barton Fink, died on Saturday, according to his family. He was 81.
Lerner’s death was announced on Instagram by his nephew, The Goldbergs actor Sam Lerner. “We lost a legend last night,” Lerner wrote. “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, talented guy, and the fact that he was my blood will always make me feel special. Everyone that knows him knows how insane he was—in the best way.”
“I’m so lucky I got to spend so much time with him, and we’re all lucky we can continue to watch his work for the rest of time,” Lerner concluded. “RIP Michael, enjoy your unlimited Cuban cigars, comfy chairs and endless movie marathon.”
No further details on Michael Lerner’s cause of death were shared.
The son of a junk dealer in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Lerner grew up into an aficionado of cigars and rare books who collected more than 150 film and television credits over the course of his career.
Initial plans to become an English professor were thwarted after he began acting in college, and he accepted a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art. In London, he shared an apartment for a time with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, where he appeared in one of Ono’s experimental short films.
He began working regularly in television in the 1970s and 1980s, putting in appearances on The Brady Bunch, M*A*S*H*, The Doris Day Show, The Odd Couple, The A-Team, and Hill Street Blues.
But it wasn’t until Joel and Ethan Coen cast him in 1991’s Barton Fink as the brash mega-producer Jack Lipnick that Lerner would truly cement his name and legacy. “They said the character was a Michael Lerner type, but they didn’t have me come in until the last minute,” he said in a 1999 interview with Cigar Aficionado.
“I came in and fucking blew them away,” he continued. “I auditioned in character, talking a mile a minute. Joel and Ethan Coen were on the ground, laughing and crying in hysterics, and I just walked out of there. I came in, I did the first big speech and walked out.”
Lerner shaped Lipnick around Mayer, the bombastic MGM Studios head. “I even found a pair of glasses in a junk shop that were identical to the ones he wore,” Lerner said at the time, according to the Los Angeles Times. “As soon as I put them on, I felt like Mayer.”
Despite only appearing in three scenes, Lipnick earned Lerner an Oscar nod at that year’s ceremony. He lost out to Jack Palance in City Slickers.
He later reunited with the Coens for a small role in their 2009 drama A Serious Man. Throughout the ’90s and into the 2000s, he continued working steadily in film, amassing credits for movies like Newsies, Blank Check, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla. He also became a familiar face in early-aughts comedies, most notably in the 2003 holiday flick Elf, in which he played James Caan’s ill-tempered colleague.
Lerner is survived by his nephew, Sam, and his brother, Ken.
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