Academy Award-nominated American actor Michael Lerner has died at the age of 81.
The 81-year-old late actor was best known for his role as the film producer, Jack Lipnick, in Barton Fink (1991) which earned him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards.
He has also starred and appeared in other films and series: The Warden in No Escape (1994), Mel Horowitz on the television series Clueless (1996-97), 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). His last feature credit came in 2015 with the comedy-drama Ashby.
Lerner was of Romanian-Jewish descent, born in Brooklyn, New York City, on 22 June 1941. He made his first television appearance as a “quiz kid” on a local television program at age 13. Although he contemplated whether to be an English professor or an actor, he went on to study acting at Brooklyn College followed by a master's degree at the University of California, Berkeley.
After receiving a Fullbright Scholarship, Lerner moved to London to study theatre at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art for two years during which he shared a flat with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.His death was confirmed by his nephew and The Goldbergs actor Sam Lerner in a tribute post on Instagram.
“We lost a legend last night. It’s hard to put into words how brilliant my uncle Michael was, and how influential he was to me,” Sam wrote. “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.”
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