Michael Lembeck

Michael Lembeck is an American actor, television director, and film director born on June 25, 1948, in Brooklyn, New York. He is the son of Caroline Dubs and Harvey Lembeck, who worked as an actor and comedian. Lembeck was raised in a Jewish household and completed his secondary education at Beverly Hills High School in 1966. He began his acting career in the late 1960s and transitioned into directing during the 1970s.

Lembeck made his Broadway debut in 1973, appearing in Grease. His stage work preceded a screen career that began with a small role in the 1968 western Hang 'Em High, in which he portrayed a store clerk named Marvin with two spoken lines involving the storage of blankets. He subsequently appeared in The Boys in Company C in 1978, playing a character named Vinnie Fazio, and later acted in The In-Laws. An earlier television appearance came in 1971, when he shared the screen with his father in an episode of The Partridge Family.

On television, Lembeck built a substantial acting profile across multiple series. He appeared in a 1975 episode of Barney Miller as Officer Guardeno and portrayed the fictional band leader Kaptain Kool on The Krofft Supershow from 1976 to 1978. He played newscaster Clete Meizenheimer on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and was a cast member of the 1985–1986 sitcom Foley Square. His most prominent acting role came on the sitcom One Day at a Time, where he played Max Horvath, the husband of Julie Cooper, from 1979 to 1984. He also appeared as an actor in Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 alongside Peter Boyle.

Lembeck's directing career has produced a substantial body of work in both film and television. He directed 21 episodes of Friends, including "The One After the Superbowl," which earned him the 1996 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series and remains the most-viewed episode of that series. He received two additional Primetime Emmy nominations for his direction of the Friends episodes "The One Where Everybody Finds Out" in 1999 and "The One That Could Have Been" in 2000. His work has also received recognition from the Directors Guild of America, which nominated him for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs for Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure in 2012 and A Nutcracker Christmas in 2017.

Among his feature film directing credits are The Santa Clause 2, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Connie and Carla, and Tooth Fairy. His collaboration with actor Peter Boyle extended across both Santa Clause films as well as multiple episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond. Lembeck is married to his second wife, retired actress Lorna Patterson, and together they raised two children.