FILE - Michael Lerner appears at the opening night of Bette Midler in"I'll Eat You at Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers" at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles on Dec. 5, 2013. Lerner, the Brooklyn-born character actor who played a myriad of imposing figures in his 60 years in the business, including crime bosses, CEOs, politicians, protective fathers and the monologuing movie mogul Jack Lipnick in Barton Fink, died Saturday, April 8, 2023 at age 81.
“He was the coolest, most confident, talented guy,” Sam Lerner wrote. “Everyone that knows him knows how insane he was — in the best way...we’re all lucky we can continue to watch his work for the rest of time. RIP Michael, enjoy your unlimited Cuban cigars, comfy chairs, and endless movie marathon.”
In 1981, he was cast in Bob Rafelson’s remake of “The Postman Always Rings Twice,” alongside Jack Nicholson, who he called one of the most generous actors he'd ever worked with, and Jessica Lange. A longtime cigar aficionado, Lerner felt out of his depths when he was asked to smoke a cigarette in a scene with Nicholson in a jail. Lerner said he held the cigarette with both hands.
“Most of the time I don’t rehearse, but I do a lot of preparation. Especially for a biographical character or one of the studio heads,” he said in 2016. “I did a lot of research for Barton Fink and looked into Louis B. Mayer and all the moguls in Hollywood.”"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.