Michael Lerner

Acting

Michael Lerner

Born 1941-06-22 · Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Michael Charles Lerner (June 22, 1941 – April 8, 2023) was an American actor. He was best known for his Academy Award-nominated performance in Barton Fink, as well as appearing in the films Elf, Godzilla, Eight Men Out, and X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Acting credits

X-Men: Days of Future Past poster
7.5

The ultimate X-Men ensemble fights a war for the survival of the species across two time periods as they join forces with their younger selves in an epic battle that must change the past – to save our future.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

2014

Elf poster
6.7

When young Buddy falls into Santa's gift sack on Christmas Eve, he's transported back to the North Pole and raised as a toy-making elf by Santa's helpers. But as he grows into adulthood, he can't shake the nagging feeling that he doesn't belong. Buddy vows to visit Manhattan and find his real dad, a workaholic.

Elf

2003

Godzilla poster
5.7

French nuclear tests irradiate an iguana into a giant monster that viciously attacks freighter ships in the Pacific Ocean. A team of experts, including Niko Tatopoulos, conclude that the oversized reptile is the culprit. Before long, the giant lizard is loose in Manhattan as the US military races to destroy the monster before it reproduces and it's spawn takes over the world.

Godzilla

1998

Mirror Mirror poster
5.9

After she spends all her money, an evil enchantress queen schemes to marry a handsome, wealthy prince. There's just one problem - he's in love with a beautiful princess, Snow White. Now, joined by seven rebellious dwarves, Snow White launches an epic battle of good vs. evil...

Mirror Mirror

2012

No Escape poster
6.2

In the year 2022, a ruthless prison warden has created the ultimate solution for his most troublesome and violent inmates: Absolom, a secret jungle island where prisoners are abandoned and left to die. But Marine Captain John Robbins, convicted of murdering a commanding officer, is determined to escape the island in order to reveal the truth behind his murderous actions and clear his name.

No Escape

1994

Blank Check poster
6.0

Bullied by his siblings and nagged by his parents, 11-year-old Preston Waters is fed up with his family — especially their frugality. But he gets his chance to teach them a lesson when a money-laundering criminal nearly bulldozes Preston with his car and compensates the boy with a blank check. Preston makes the check out for $1 million and goes on a spending spree he'll never forget.

Blank Check

1994

101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure poster
6.0

Being one of 101 takes its toll on Patch, who doesn't feel unique. When he's accidentally left behind on moving day, he meets his idol, Thunderbolt, who enlists him on a publicity campaign.

101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure

2003

Harlem Nights poster
6.1

'Sugar' Ray is the owner of an illegal casino and must contend with the pressure of vicious gangsters and corrupt police who want to see him go out of business. In the world of organised crime and police corruption in the 1920s, any dastardly trick is fair.

Harlem Nights

1989

A Serious Man poster
6.7

It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous acquaintances Sy Ableman.

A Serious Man

2009

Barton Fink poster
7.5

A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood.

Barton Fink

1991

The Postman Always Rings Twice poster
6.5

The sensuous wife of a lunch wagon proprietor and a rootless drifter begin a sordidly steamy affair and conspire to murder her Greek husband.

The Postman Always Rings Twice

1981

Safe Men poster
5.5

Two untalented singers are mistaken for a pair of major league safe crackers in Providence, Rhode Island. The two are pressed into service by the local hoodlums and quickly find themselves in conflict with their professional colleagues. Romantic interest is added by the daughter of the underworld leader who won't date the men she knows are gangsters.

Safe Men

1998

For Richer or Poorer poster
6.0

Brad Sexton and his wife, Caroline, are wealthy New Yorkers with both marital and financial problems. The latter issue becomes a pressing matter when they discover that their accountant has embezzled millions and pinned the blame on them. Forced to go on the lam, Brad and Caroline end up in an Amish area of Pennsylvania and decide to pose as members of the religious group to evade the IRS. As the two adapt to the simple Amish lifestyle, they begin to reconnect.

For Richer or Poorer

1997

Omen IV: The Awakening poster
5.1

Damien Thorn is dead, but his prophecy is reborn in a mysterious girl named Delia, who is adopted by two attorneys.

Omen IV: The Awakening

1991

Frankenstein's Monster's Monster, Frankenstein poster
5.8

When actor David Harbour finds lost footage of his father's disastrous televised stage play of a literary classic, he uncovers shocking family secrets.

Frankenstein's Monster's Monster, Frankenstein

2019

Amos & Andrew poster
5.5

When Andrew Sterling, a successful black urbanite writer, buys a vacation home on a resort in New England the police mistake him for a burglar. After surrounding his home with armed men, Chief Tolliver realizes his mistake and to avoid the bad publicity offers a thief in his jail, Amos Odell a deal.

Amos & Andrew

1993

Celebrity poster
6.0

The career and personal life of writer Lee are at a standstill, so he divorces his bashful wife, Robin, and dives into a new job as an entertainment journalist. His assignments take him to the swankiest corners of Manhattan, but as he jumps from one lavish party to another and engages in numerous empty romances, he starts to doubt the worth of his work. Meanwhile, top TV producer Tony falls for Robin and introduces her to the world of celebrity.

Celebrity

1998

Newsies poster
6.7

A week in the life of the exploited, child newspaper sellers in turn-of-the-century New York. When their publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, tries to squeeze a little more profit out of their labours, they organize a strike, only to be confronted with the Pulitzer's hard-ball tactics.

Newsies

1992

Borderline poster
6.1

Jeb Maynard is a patrolman guarding the U.S.-Mexican border, whose partner and buddy Scooter has just been murdered. Maynard knows that a smuggler of illegal aliens is responsible for Scooter's death, but the feds insist that drug dealers committed the crime.

Borderline

1980

The Beautician and the Beast poster
6.7

A New York City beautician is mistakenly hired as the school teacher for the children of the president of a small Eastern European country.

The Beautician and the Beast

1997

Maniac Cop 2 poster
5.9

Undead cop Matt Cordell rises from the grave, and is after the criminals who murdered him in prison.

Maniac Cop 2

1990

My Favorite Martian poster
5.7

Ambitious television reporter Tim O'Hara stumbles upon a martian whose spaceship has accidentally crashed on Earth. Thinking this is his ticket to a Pulitzer Prize, Tim makes plans to expose the martian, who, posing as Tim's Uncle Martin, takes human form and has plans of his own. In fact, all of Tim's efforts to divulge the truth are systematically thwarted by the resourceful alien, who ultimately recruits Tim to help him repair his ship for a return to Mars.

My Favorite Martian

1999

Atlas Shrugged: Part I poster
5.5

A powerful railroad executive, Dagny Taggart, struggles to keep her business alive while society is crumbling around her. Based on the 1957 novel by Ayn Rand.

Atlas Shrugged: Part I

2011

Art School Confidential poster
6.1

Starting from childhood attempts at illustration, the protagonist pursues his true obsession to art school. But as he learns how the art world really works, he finds that he must adapt his vision to the reality that confronts him.

Art School Confidential

2006