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How did Michael Lerner die? Fans devastated as Oscar-nominated actor dies at 81

'He was excellent in everything he was in. Check him out guest starring on Hill Street Blues,' commented a fan

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: ‘Barton Fink’ actor Michael Lerner has died at the age of 81, his nephew Sam Lerner revealed. Sam broke the news of his "brilliant" uncle's death on his Instagram page to his 117K followers who joined him in the mourning.

“We lost a legend last night,” wrote Sam at the beginning of his lengthy obituary to his uncle Michael Lerner. He then continued, “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.”

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Talking about the special bond he shared with his actor-uncle, Sam wrote, “He was the coolest, most confident, talented guy, and the fact that he was my blood will always make me feel special.” In sweet remembrance, he added, “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.”

Sam ended the post with “RIP Michael, enjoy your unlimited Cuban cigars, comfy chairs, and endless movie marathon 💖.” While the cause of his death is not immediately known, the news of the versatile actor's death was first reported by TMZ. He is survived by his brother Ken Lerner, who is also an actor

Michael Lerner's filmography

Lerner made his television debut as a quiz kid at the age of 13 and later appeared in Yoko Ono’s short film 'Smile' while he was still a student at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He said, "She made a movie comprised of bare asses walking on a treadmill," before continuing, "I’m in it and so is Paul McCartney. Plus I’m doing narration about censorship and all that crap,” as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

Lerner made his film debut with director Paul Mazursky’s ‘Alex in Wonderland’ in 1970. Lerner then appeared in supporting roles in various Hollywood productions such as 'The Candidate', 'St Ives' and the 1981 remake of 'The Postman Always Rings Twice'. In 1991, Lerner played film producer Jack Lipnick in 'Barton Fink', which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He also has ‘Harlem Nights’, ‘Elf’, ‘Godzilla’, ‘Omen IV’, ‘The Last Time’, ‘Love and Other Disasters’, etc credited to his name. Among his recent appearances, ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, ‘Ashby’ and ‘Frankenstein's Monster's Monster, Frankenstein’ are to name a few with ‘Frankenstein's Monster's Monster, Frankenstein’ marking his last film in 2019.

Lerner has had a prolific television career which made him a fan favorite. He made his television debut as Dr Brown in ‘Dr Kildare’ in 1963. After that he went on to star in several television series including ‘The Rockford Files’, ‘Hill Street Blues’, ‘Courthouse’, ‘Clueless’, ‘Godzilla: The Series’, ‘The Bannen Way’. Most recently he appeared in the 2016 series ‘Maron. Lerner also appeared in a number of television movies including ‘Murder at the Cannes Film Festival’, ‘The Comrades of Summer’, ‘The King of Love’, and 'Blood Feud’ among others.

'We're going to run out of 'that guys''

"Remember him from the Rockford Files. The man knew how to eat a hot dog. Hope he caused a few takes just to get more first bites," said one fan. Another fan mused, "I hope some obit for Michael Lerner makes note of his terif work in the wildly out there Bigas Lunas’ “Anguish” (1987)." "We're going to run out of "that guys..."," said the third. 

"He was excellent in everything he was in. Check him out guest starring on Hill Street Blues," commented another. "Baruch Dayan HaEmet Michael Lerner, an actor who had a way more colorful and amazing life than you even realize," commemorated the fifth. Another fan said, "It's great that "Barton Fink" is the top film mentioned in connection with Michael Lerner's death. Unfortunately, whenever I see him, I think of how Roland Emmerich had him do a weird Siskel & Ebert parody in "Godzilla"."

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