Life and career

Lerner was born in Brooklyn, New York, of Romanian Jewish descent, the son of Blanche and George Lerner, a fisherman and antiques dealer. He was raised in the Bensonhurst and Red Hook neighborhoods. His brother, Ken Lerner, is also an actor, as is his nephew, Sam Lerner.

After graduating from Brooklyn College and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), Lerner began his acting career in the late 1960s at the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) in San Francisco. At the age of 24 he appeared as "Hieronymous the Miser" in a KPFA radio production of Michel de Ghelderode's Breugelesque play, Red Magic.

During the seventies, Lerner began making several guest appearances in television shows such as The Brady Bunch, The Odd Couple and M*A*S*H. He appeared in three episodes of The Rockford Files. In 1974, he appeared in the teleplay The Missiles of October, playing Pierre Salinger.

In 1970, Lerner made his film debut in Alex in Wonderland. He then went on to appear in supporting roles in various Hollywood movies such as The Candidate, St. Ives and the 1981 remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice. In 1991, after co-starring in Harlem Nights, Lerner played film producer Jack Lipnick in Barton Fink, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Lerner's later projects include the Christmas comedy Elf and Poster Boy, as well as appearing in television programs such as Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Entourage.

In 2002, he appeared in London's West End production of Up for Grabs with Madonna. Michael also appeared on BBC Radio Four in 2008 as a member of the cast of David Quantick's Radio Four's series One. He portrayed Senator Brickman in the Marvel Comics/Twentieth Century Fox film, X-Men: Days of Future Past.

In 2013, Lerner appeared in a Season 4 episode of Glee as Sidney Greene, an investor in the revival of Broadway musical Funny Girl. His character is on the panel of judges, watching the Rachel Berry character audition for the lead role. He reprised his role as Sidney in Season 5 in several New York-based episodes of the series, as Funny Girl opens on Broadway.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1970	Alex in Wonderland	Leo
1972	The Candidate	Corliss
1974	M*A*S*H (TV series)	Captain Bernie Futterman	1 episode
	Newman's Law	Frank Acker
	The Missiles of October	Pierre Salinger
1975	Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic	Dr. Marvin Kittredge
1976	Dark Victory	Manny
	St. Ives	Myron Green
1977	The Other Side of Midnight	Barbet
1978	Ruby and Oswald	Jack Ruby
1979	Goldengirl	Sternberg
1980	The Baltimore Bullet	Paulie
	Coast to Coast	Dr. Frederick Froll
	Borderline	Henry Lydell
1981	The Postman Always Rings Twice	Mr. Katz
	Threshold	Henry de Vici
1982	National Lampoon's Class Reunion	Dr. Robert Young
1983	Hill Street Blues (TV series)	Rollie Simone	4 episodes
	Strange Invaders	Willie Collings
	Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess	Harry Cohn
1984	Movers & Shakers	Arnie
1987	Anguish	John Pressman
	Hands of a Stranger	Capt. Cirrillo
	The King of Love	Nat Goldberg
1988	Vibes	Burt Wilder
	Eight Men Out	Arnold Rothstein
1989	Harlem Nights	Bugsy Calhoune
1990	Maniac Cop 2	Edward Doyle
	Any Man's Death	Herb Denner
1991	Barton Fink	Jack Lipnick	Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
	Omen IV: The Awakening	Earl Knight
1992	Newsies	Weasel
	The Comrades of Summer	George
1993	Amos & Andrew	Phil Gillman
1994	Blank Check	Biderman
	Radioland Murders	Lieutenant Cross
	The Road to Wellville	Goodloe Bender
1995	Courtroom (TV series)	Judge Myron Winkleman	11 episodes
	No Way Back	Frank Serlano
	A Pyromaniac's Love Story	Perry
1997	For Richer or Poorer	Phillip Kleinman
1998	Godzilla	Mayor Ebert
	Safe Men	Big Fat Bernie Gayle
	Celebrity	Dr. Lupus
	Tale of the Mummy	Professor Marcus
1999	The Mod Squad	Howard
	My Favorite Martian	Mr. Channing
2000	Murder at the Cannes Film Festival	Morrie Borelli
2001	Mockingbird Don't Sing	Dr. Stan York
2002	101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure	Producer	Voice only
2003	Elf	Mr Greenway
2004	The Calcium Kid	Artie Cohen
	Poster Boy	Jack Kray
2005	When Do We Eat?	Ira Stuckman
	Love and Other Disasters	Morty
2006	The Last Time	Leguzza
2007	A Dennis the Menace Christmas	Mr. Souse
2008	Entourage	Guest Star
	Yonkers Joe	Stanley
2009	A Serious Man	Solomon Schlutz
	Life During Wartime	Harvey Wiener
2010	Pete Smalls Is Dead	Leonard Proval
2011	Atlas Shrugged	Wesley Mouch
2012	Mirror Mirror	Baron
2013-14	Glee	Sidney Greene	5 episodes
2014	X-Men: Days of Future Past	Senator Brickman
2015	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Darren Schlepping	1 episode
	Ashby	Entwhistle
2016	Maron (TV series)	Mother's Boyfriend (Episode 4.5 Marc in Florida)	1 episode

[ Source: Wikipedia ]