Daniel Stern (actor)

For other people named Daniel Stern, see Daniel Stern (disambiguation).

Daniel Stern
Stern in July 2014
Born	Daniel Jacob Stern (1957-08-28) August 28, 1957 Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Other names	Peter Mills (screenwriter name)
Occupations	Actor artist director screenwriter
Years active	1979–present
Spouse	Laure Mattos ​ (m. 1980)​
Children	3, including Henry
Relatives	David M. Stern (brother)

Daniel Jacob Stern (born August 28, 1957) is an American actor, artist, director, comedian, and screenwriter. He is best known for his roles as Marv Murchins in Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Phil Berquist in City Slickers (1991) and City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994), the voice of adult Kevin Arnold on the television series The Wonder Years, and the voice of Dilbert on the animated series of the same name. Other notable films of his include Breaking Away (1979), Stardust Memories (1980), Diner (1982), Blue Thunder (1983), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), Coupe de Ville (1990), and Very Bad Things (1998). He made his feature-film directorial debut with Rookie of the Year (1993).

Early life

Stern was born in Bethesda, Maryland to Cynthia and Leonard Stern. His father was a social worker while his mother managed a day care center. He is 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 Chuck 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 Studio 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

Stern with Kristen Wiig and Drew Barrymore at 2009 Toronto International Film Festival

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. He was the novice observer Richard Lymangood in the 1983 action thriller film Blue Thunder. He had another early film role in the 1984 horror film C.H.U.D., as the soup kitchen C.H.U.D. hunter. His breakthrough role as Laurence "Shrevie" Schreiber came in Barry Levinson's Diner. He appeared in two films with Woody Allen, Stardust Memories and Hannah and Her Sisters.

Stern at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival

Stern has played characters in a number of comedic roles, such as Phil Berquist in City Slickers and City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold, and Marv 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 fourth installment of the franchise, believing the script to be a disgrace to the original motion picture. 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. 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. He starred in Game Over, Man! (2018) as well as the Hulu original series, “Shrill”, as the main character’s (Aidy Bryant) father.

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, Monrovia, and Agoura Hills. He is an artist in residence at Studio Channel Islands Art Centre in Camarillo. He has also done many private commissions, gallery exhibitions and art fairs. He married Laure Mattos, an actress in 1980, and together they have three children: son California State Senator Henry and daughters Ella and Sophie.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1979	Breaking Away	Cyril
	Starting Over	Student 2
1980	A Small Circle of Friends	Crazy Kid: Draft Inductee	Credited as "Dan Stern"
	Stardust Memories	Actor
	One-Trick Pony	Hare Krishna
	It's My Turn	Cooperman
1981	Honky Tonk Freeway	Hitchhiker
1982	Diner	Laurence 'Shrevie' Schreiber
	I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can	Jim
1983	Blue Thunder	Officer Richard Lymangood
	Get Crazy	Neil Allen
	Daniel	Artie Sternlicht
1984	C.H.U.D.	A.J 'The Reverend' Shepherd	Writer (Uncredited)
	Frankenweenie	Ben Frankenstein	Short film
1985	Key Exchange	Michael Fine
1986	Hannah and Her Sisters	"Dusty"
	The Boss' Wife	Joel Keefer
1987	Born in East L.A.	Jimmy
1988	The Milagro Beanfield War	Herbie Platt
	D.O.A.	Hal Petersham
1989	Leviathan	Buzz "Sixpack" Parrish
	Little Monsters	Glen Stevenson
	Friends, Lovers, & Lunatics	Mat
1990	Coupe de Ville	Marvin Libner
	My Blue Heaven	Will Stubbs
	Home Alone	Marv Murchins
1991	City Slickers	Phil Berquist
1992	Home Alone 2: Lost in New York	Marv Murchins
1993	Rookie of the Year	Phil Brickma	Director
1994	City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold	Phil Berquist
1995	Bushwhacked	Max Grabelski	Executive Producer
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
2004	The Last Full Measure		Short film
2006	Vegas, Baby	Hardy Hard	Direct-to-video
	The Last Time	John Whitman
2008	Otis	Will Lawson
	A Previous Engagement	Jack Reynolds
2009	Whip It	Earl Cavendar
	Red State Blues	Howard	Short film
2010	The Next Three Days	Meyer Fisk
	Branches	Narrator (voice)	Short film
2011	California Romanza	Uncle Pops
2012	A Christmas Story 2	The Old Man	Direct-to-video
2017	City Slickers in Westworld	Phil Berquist	Video short
2018	Game Over, Man!	Mitch
2019	James vs. His Future Self	Jimmy	Executive Producer
TBA	Everything's Peachy	Jerry Schiff	Pre-production, Director and Writer

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Samson and Delilah	Micah	Television film
	The Ratings Game	Skip Imperali
1985	Hometown	Joey Nathan	10 episodes
1986	Comedy Factory	Leon	Episode: "Man About Town"
1988	Weekend War	Garfield	Television film
1988–1993	The Wonder Years	Adult Kevin Arnold (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"
	Tourist Trap	George W. Piper	Television film
1999	Partners	Sam
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"
	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
2014–2015	Manhattan	Glen Babbit	15 episodes
2015	Strange Calls	Gregor	Television movie
2016	Angie Tribeca	Dreyfuss	Episode: "The Coast Is Fear"
2017	Love	Marty Dobbs	Episode: "Marty Dobbs"
2018	Dan the Weatherman	Don	Television movie
2019	Shrill	Bill Easton	8 episodes
2020	Captain Karl's Institute for the Abnormally Bizarre	'Captain Karl' Moorehouse
2023–present	For All Mankind	Eli Hobson	10 episodes

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
1992	American Comedy Awards	Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture	City Slickers	Nominated

External links

• Daniel Stern at IMDb
• Iceboxx - Webblog about Daniel Stern's artwork
• Daniel Stern's official YouTube channel