Born in 1941 to Romanian-Jewish parents and raised in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, Lerner made his acting debut with a guest role on the medical drama “Dr. Kildare” in 1963. He went on to appear in numerous television series in the following decades, such as “The Brady Bunch,” “The Odd Couple,” “The Rockford Files,” “The A-Team” and “Hill Street Blues.”
Lerner began acting in his native Brooklyn as a teen and into his days at Brooklyn College, where he got the chance to play Willie Loman in “Death of a Salesman.” His ambitions to pursue acting professionally crystalized when he received a Fulbright Scholarship and chose to study theater at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, where he lived in an apartment with Yoko Ono for a time, appearing in her short film “Smile.” His brother, Ken Lerner, also became an actor.
Lerner’s big break in show business came when he landed the role of monologuing movie mogul Jack Lipnick in the Coen brothers’ 1991 comedy thriller “Barton Fink,” co-starring John Turturro, John Goodman and Judy Davis. The role earned Lerner an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor in 1992.
Drawing inspiration from Preston Sturges movies, Lerner said the Coens didn’t give him much acting direction and “were a little nervous that I was talking so fast” but that they let him do what he wanted.
“I had auditioned for Joel and Ethan before, for ‘Miller’s Crossing.’ So I walked into the room, as the character, and I don’t say hello to anybody. And I sit down behind my desk and do this big speech: ‘Bart! Bart! So great to see you,’” Lerner told The Associated Press in 2016. “I did the monologue the way I wanted to do it and I just walked out of the room and that was it. And Joel and Ethan were just sitting in a corner just laughing and laughing and that was it.”
Following the success of “Barton Fink,” Lerner continued to appear in various films and TV series, including “Clueless,” “Godzilla,” “Elf,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Glee.” Lerner’s most recent role was in the Sergey Mokritskiy-directed war drama “Pervyy Oskar” in 2022.
“Everyone that knows him knows how insane he was— in the best way,” Sam concluded his post. “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.”
Contributing: Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press