Early life

Stern was born in Bethesda, Maryland, to a social worker father and a mother who managed a day care center. His parents are both Jewish. His brother is television writer David M. Stern. During his years at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Stern starred in several theater productions, including playing C.C. Baxter in Promises, Promises and Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. Stern applied for a job as a lighting engineer for a Shakespeare Festival in Washington, D.C., but was hired as a walk-on in their production of The Taming of the Shrew, starring Glenn Close. He dropped out of high school in his senior year and soon moved to New York. After taking acting lessons at HB Studios with Austin Pendleton and Herbert Berghof, Stern began his acting career in Off Broadway and Broadway productions, including True West with Gary Sinise and How I Got That Story at Second Stage Theatre with Bob Gunton. He acted in numerous productions at The Public Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater, Cherry Lane Theater,and Manhattan Theater Club.

Career

In 1979, Stern made his film debut as Cyril in Breaking Away. The following year he played a student who raised objections during Jill Clayburgh's proof of the snake lemma in the film It's My Turn. His breakthrough role as Laurence "Shrevie" Schreiber came in Barry Levinson's Diner. He had another early film role in the 1984 horror film C.H.U.D., as the soup kitchen C.H.U.D. hunter. He appeared in two films with Woody Allen, Stardust Memories and Hannah and Her Sisters.

Stern has played characters in a number of comedic roles, such as Phil Berquist in City Slickers, and Marv Murchens the burglar in the first two Home Alone films, Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, with Joe Pesci. However, he declined to play the character once again in the future installments of the franchise. He also starred as Max in Bushwhacked. He provided the voice of the narrator on the TV series The Wonder Years, which starred Fred Savage as Kevin Arnold. As narrator, Stern played the adult Kevin Arnold, remembering his youth. Stern and Savage were also featured together in Little Monsters, in which Stern played the father of Savage's character. In the late 1990s, Stern took on a more serious role in the black comedy Very Bad Things with Christian Slater, Cameron Diaz and Jon Favreau. Stern provided the voice for the main character of the Dilbert animated TV series, based on the comic strip by Scott Adams.

Stern directed several episodes of The Wonder Years and the 1993 feature film Rookie of the Year, and in recent years directed two episodes of the TV series, Manhattan.

Stern created, wrote and starred in the CBS television show Danny.

He wrote the off-Broadway hit "Barbra's Wedding", which was produced by The Dodgers and Manhattan Theater Club. It starred John Pankow and Julie White and ran for six months. Mr. Stern also appeared in the play at Garry Marshall's Falcon Theater.

Stern was originally offered the role of Dale Gribble in King of the Hill but he was replaced by Johnny Hardwick when his salary agreement went low.

Personal life

Stern works as an artist, specializing in bronze sculpture. He has created sculptures for public art projects in San Diego, Pasadena, Palm Desert, Temple City and Agoura Hills. He is an artist in residence at Studio Channel Islands Art Center in Camarillo. He has also done many private commissions, gallery exhibitions and art fairs.

He and his wife, Laure, started the Malibu Foundation for Youth and Families, which created The Malibu Boys and Girls Club, a thriving institution serving Malibu. He served as the President of foundation as well.

He developed a curriculum and taught Media Literacy in classrooms throughout California.

He served as Honorary Chairman of the California PTA.

Over Christmas in 2003, Mr. Stern visited the troops in Iraq on Handshake Tour with the USO. He was accompanied by his son Henry, who served as tour director.

He helped create and served as the founding Chairman of the Malibu Arts Commission.

In 2009, President Obama awarded him the United States' highest honor for volunteerism, the President's "Call to Service Award".

He owns a 500-acre cattle ranch in California's Central Valley.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1979	Breaking Away	Cyril
1979	Starting Over	Student 2
1980	A Small Circle of Friends	Crazy Kid: Draft Inductee
1980	Stardust Memories	Actor
1980	One Trick Pony	Hare Krishna
1980	It's My Turn	Cooperman
1981	Honky Tonk Freeway	Hitchhiker
1982	I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can	Jim
1982	Diner	Laurence 'Shrevie' Schreiber
1983	Blue Thunder	Officer Richard Lymangood
1983	Get Crazy	Neil Allen
1983	Daniel	Artie Sternlicht
1984	C.H.U.D.	Al 'The Reverend' Shepherd
1984	Frankenweenie	Ben Frankenstein	Short film
1985	Key Exchange	Michael Fine
1986	Hannah and Her Sisters	Dusty
1986	The Boss' Wife	Joel Keefer
1987	Born in East L.A.	Jimmy
1988	The Milagro Beanfield War	Herbie Platt
1988	D.O.A.	Hal Petersham
1989	Leviathan	Buzz "Sixpack" Parrish
1989	Little Monsters	Glen Stevenson
1989	Friends, Lovers, & Lunatics	Mat
1990	Coupe de Ville	Marvin Libner
1990	My Blue Heaven	Will Stubbs
1990	Home Alone	Marv Merchants
1991	City Slickers	Phil Berquist
1992	Home Alone 2: Lost in New York	Marv Merchants
1993	Rookie of the Year	Phil Brickma	Also director
1994	City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold	Phil Berquist
1995	Bushwhacked	Max Grabelski
1996	Celtic Pride	Mike O'Hara
1998	Very Bad Things	Adam Berkow
2000	How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog	Guest at costume party	Uncredited
2001	Viva Las Nowhere	Frank Jacobs
2006	The Last Time	John Whitman
2009	Otis	Will Lawson
2009	Whip It	Earl Cavendar
2010	The Next Three Days	Meyer Fisk

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Samson and Delilah	Micah	Television film
1984	The Ratings Game	Skip Imperali	Television film
1985	Hometown	Joey Nathan	10 episodes
1986	Comedy Factory	Leon	Episode: "Man About Town"
1988	Weekend War	Garfield	Television film
1988-93	The Wonder Years	Kevin Arnold / Narrator (voice)	Uncredited; 114 episodes
1990	The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson	William Cline	Television film
1991	The Simpsons	Narrator	Episode: "Three Men and a Comic Book"
1997	Gun	Harvey Hochfelder	Episode: "The Shot"
1998	Hey Arnold!	Mr. Packenham (voice)	Episode: "Tour de Pond/Teachers' Strike"
1998	Tourist Trap	George W. Piper	Television film
1999	Partners	Sam	Television film
1999-2000	Dilbert	Dilbert (voice)	30 episodes
2001	Danny	Danny	9 episodes
2003	Regular Joe	Joe Binder	5 episodes
2009	Family Guy	Narrator (voice)	Episode: "FOX-y Lady"
2009	Monk	Sheriff Franklin	Episode: "Mr. Monk and the UFO"
2010	Battle of the Bulbs	Bob Wallace	Television film
2013	Workaholics	Travis Rockne	Episode: "Alice Quits"
2013; 2015	Getting On	Richard James	2 episodes
2014	House of Lies	Robert Tretorn	2 episodes
2014-15	Manhattan	Glen Babbit	15 episodes

Awards and nominations

Year	Result	Award	Category	Film or series
1992	Nominated	American Comedy Awards	Funniest Supporting Actor	City Slickers

[ Source: Wikipedia ]