[19], Also during his time on Law & Order, Orbach co-starred with Al Pacino in the independent film Chinese Coffee, which was filmed in the summer of 1997 and released three years later.[3]. Elaine Cancilla Orbach, the widow of actor Jerry Orbach and a former Broadway dancer, has died. and Super Password. Sure, police procedurals, from Dragnet to Hawaii Five-O, had been around for ages on TV. The Jerry Orbach Theater, which opened in 2006, is on the third floor of the Snapple Theater Center complex, 210 West 50th Street, in New York City. [34] The album was reissued in 2000 by Decca Records for its "Stars on Decca Broadway" series. Lenny is, after all, a creation-- he's not a famous song and dance man like Orbach. After nearly a decade on Broadway, the stage manager is not just working in theatre—he’s shaping it for the better. And then there's the issue of Jerry Orbach. They later co-starred in a tour of Neil Simon's Chapter Two and married in 1979. He is known for portraying hardened gangsters and crime bosses who stop at nothing to get their way in films. [6] His father was a Jewish emigrant from Hamburg, Germany. Jerry Orbach had a gift for charming audiences his entire career — first as a song-and-dance man who starred in musicals on and off Broadway, then … I think it was a great loss when he passed. His first major role was El Gallo in the original 1960 cast of the decades-running hit The Fantasticks, and Orbach became the first to perform the show's signature song and pop standard "Try To Remember". 12 and he goes "No, go there further, I think there's more you can get." His likeness has been used in an ad campaign for Eye Bank for Sight Restoration in Manhattan. Above: Dann Florek (from left), Carolyn McCormick, S. Epatha Merkerson and Jill Hennessy at Jerry Orbach Way. The theater is the location for the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 405-407. Actor Jerry Orbach made a name for himself in the business as a leading man on Broadway, but he became a household name after starring as New York City detective Lennie Briscoe on NBC’s Law & Order. He had previously guest-starred as a defense attorney on the series, and was subsequently cast as the new "senior detective" following Paul Sorvino's departure. He would say little things like "courage", and it gives me goosebumps to say that. Among them are Humphrey Bogart Place, Miles Davis Way and Joey Ramone Place. 9: Jerry Orbach was an animal-rights activist. [1] His glossy publicity photo hangs in Ms. Buffy's French Cleaners, and he was a regular at some of the Italian restaurants nearby. [4], Later in his career, Orbach played supporting roles in films such as Prince of the City (1981), Dirty Dancing (1987), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), and Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991). He was called one of the last bona fide leading men of the Broadway musical before his death in 2004, due to prostate cancer. At that point, he went on hormone therapy, on which he remained over the next decade while he continued to star on Law & Order. Personal Quotes (5) I used to say when I was working in the theater that if I ever had five seasons of a hit TV show I'd never have to worry about money and wouldn't have to do anything I didn't want to do . I talked to him one time, and he's adorable."[31]. His mother died on July 28, 2012, at the age of 101. [16][17], In 1992, Orbach joined the main cast of Law & Order during its third season as the world-weary, wisecracking NYPD homicide detective Lennie Briscoe. The street was rechristened in 2007. [3] His wish was granted when two individuals – one who needed correction for a nearsighted eye and another who needed correction for a farsighted eye – received Orbach's corneas. In 1991, Orbach starred in Disney's Oscar-winning animated musical Beauty and the Beast as the voice (both singing and speaking) of the French-accented candelabrum Lumière, which he played "halfway between Maurice Chevalier and Pepé Le Pew". [1] They divorced in 1975. The release includes traditional four-inch figures and keychains of characters from the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning musical. Having had perfect 20/20 vision his whole life, Jerry Orbach requested that his eyes be donated after his death. Learn about music directing and conducting from the. In 1985, Orbach became a regular guest star on Murder, She Wrote as private detective Harry McGraw, which led to him starring in the short-lived spin-off series The Law & Harry McGraw. [21][22], Orbach lived in a high-rise on 53rd Street off Eighth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen and was a fixture in that neighborhood's restaurants and shops. Orbach would go on to become an accomplished Broadway and off-Broadway actor. [3] He also made frequent guest appearances on television, including a recurring role on Murder, She Wrote as private detective Harry McGraw between 1985 and 1991, and was the voice of Zachary Foxx in The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers in 1986. He also portrayed gangsters in both the action-thriller F/X and the Woody Allen drama Crimes and Misdemeanors (the latter of which also featured his future Law & Order co-star Sam Waterston). Orbach himself was nominated for a 2000 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (losing to James Gandolfini for The Sopranos). We make this recommendation because of Mr. Orbach’s long-standing status as a Broadway and off Broadway actor, his over 20-year residence in In Marie, the 1990 movie about the case, Thompson played himself, the first in a string of big shots in movies like No Way Out, ... (Jerry Orbach) and replacing Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt). After Law & Order was cancelled in 2010, executive producer René Balcer was quoted by The Wall Street Journal: "I always think about the show as before Jerry and after Jerry... You saw the weariness of 25 years of crime-fighting in New York written on his face. Jerry Orbach, who won fame on the New York stage as one of the last bona fide leading men of the Broadway musical and global celebrity on television as … Orbach left Northwestern before his senior year and moved to New York City in 1955 to pursue acting and to study at the Actors Studio, where one of his instructors was the studio's founder, Lee Strasberg.[12]. In 1953, Orbach returned to the Chicago area and enrolled at Northwestern University. [5] Orbach's portrayal of Briscoe was based on his similar role from Prince of the City years before, which Law & Order creator Dick Wolf had personally suggested to him at the time of his casting. The annual concert benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. [2] Despite being diagnosed with the cancer more than a decade before his death, Orbach's illness was not revealed to the general public until just weeks before he died. Jerry Orbach died in 2004, and at his memorial people spoke of his extraordinary devotion to his wife, to whom he would write a poem every day. . Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007. [3], In addition to his Tony Award and nominations, Jerry Orbach is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 1999. In addition to his sons, wife, and former wife, Orbach was survived by his mother and two grandchildren, Peter and Sarah Kate Orbach, children of his older son Tony. The two actors met while they were working on the original production of Kander and Ebb's Chicago, where Jerry played lawyer Billy Flynn and Elaine was a replacement for Velma Kelly. Today the late actor Jerry Orbach (1935-2004) is best remembered as the world-weary New York City Detective Lennie Briscoe from the Emmy Award-winning NBC television series Law and Order. However, he gained worldwide fame for his starring role as NYPD Detective Lennie Briscoe on the original Law & Order series from 1992 to 2004. In 1979, Jerry Orbach married Broadway dancer Elaine Cancilla, whom he met while starring in Chicago. Also in 2007, the Jerry Orbach Theatre was named for him in the Snapple Theater Center at 50th Street and Broadway in New York City. [18] During Orbach's tenure on Law & Order, the series won the 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series among other accolades, made multiple crossover episodes with fellow NBC series Homicide: Life on the Street, and spawned a franchise that included the TV film Exiled: A Law & Order Movie, the spin-off series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (both of which featured Orbach in guest appearances), and three video games. It wasn't until the 1990s, when he started appearing as Lennie Briscoe in "Law & Order," that Mr. Orbach became a familiar name throughout the country. How to Succeed..., Here's Love, Flora, the Red Menace, Sweet Charity and Cry for Us All, working many times with choreographer Bob Fosse. [5], Orbach was born on October 20, 1935, in the Bronx, the only child of Emily (née Olexy), a greeting card manufacturer and radio singer, and Leon Orbach, a restaurant manager and vaudeville performer. Jerry Orbach. Dirty Dancing co-star Patrick Swayze memorialized Orbach after his death: Jerry Orbach has been one of the most successful actors who ever lived to make that transition from musical theatre into real, organic, break-your-heart kinds of reality in his work as a film actor, but transition back and forth seamlessly... it was a very interesting time for me, when I was shooting Dirty Dancing, I think probably the eyes I trusted if I was real, and it worked, and I had nailed it, [were] Jerry Orbach's eyes. The Bronx native played the part for 12 years and made detective Briscoe the iconic, quick-tempered but street-smart cop that he was. Lullaby Of Broadway Lyrics. Copyright 1991-2020 © Playbill Inc. All Rights Reserved. To begin with, Jerry Orbach was raised in The Bronx. In 1987, he was featured in the hit film Dirty Dancing as Dr. Jake Houseman, the father of Jennifer Grey's character "Baby". Somewhat the way Maurice Chevalier came to symbolize the ideal Frenchman (or did, for fifty years), Orbach's character, Lenny, symbolized the ideal New Yorker, at least, according to the NY press. [3] Orbach starred on Law & Order for 11-and-a-half seasons, ultimately becoming the third longest-serving main cast member (behind S. Epatha Merkerson and Sam Waterston) in the show's 20-year-run history, as well as one of its most popular. [3], In 1963, Orbach released an album with MGM Records titled Jerry Orbach: Off Broadway, which included works from musicals such as The Fantasticks and The Threepenny Opera. The proposed guidelines are dependent on the easing of coronavirus lockdown restrictions by spring. Jerry Orbach had a tough time gaining approval. Jerry Orbach Net Worth $10 Million. Jerry Orbach was a native of the Bronx who was a talented singer and actor. Trivia: A portion of New York City's 53rd Street near Eighth Avenue was renamed "Jerry Orbach Way" in his honor on September 18, 2007. [1] Elder son Tony is a construction manager and an accomplished crossword puzzle constructor who has published more than 25 puzzles in The New York Times. The Ed Sullivan Theater is at Broadway, across the street from the back door of the Roseland Ballroom and next to another subway powerhouse. Long before actor Jerry Orbach was the guy millions of Americans knew as cop Lennie Briscoe from the long-running TV series, Law & Order, he was a star on the stage of some of New York’s most famous theaters. Elaine Cancilla Orbach, Actor Jerry Orbach's Widow, Dies at 69. . 8 reviews Today the late actor Jerry Orbach (1935-2004) is best remembered as the world-weary New York City Detective Lennie Briscoe from the Emmy Award-winning NBC television series Law and Order. ... Jerry Orbach, is kinda-sorta-in-a-contrived-way Jewish. [33] Another biography, Jerry Orbach, Prince of the City: His Way from the Fantasticks to Law & Order by John Anthony Gilvey, was published on May 1, 2011. Since her husband's death, Elaine Orbach fought to have a portion of 53rd Street at Eighth Avenue renamed Jerry Orbach Way… [3] Following his departure from the series at the end of the 2003/04 season, Orbach underwent chemotherapy, but he ultimately succumbed to his cancer on December 28, 2004, at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York at age 69. But that work only accounts for 12 years of a 50-year career that spanned stage, screen, and television. [20] Younger son Chris Orbach is an actor and a singer; he played Lennie Briscoe's nephew Ken Briscoe during the first season of Special Victims Unit. Orbach was married in 1958 to Marta Curro, with whom he had two sons, Anthony Nicholas and Christopher Benjamin. He played El Gallo in The Fantasticks and won a Tony Award in 1969 for his role in Promises. As of 2007, the intersection of 8th Avenue and 53rd Street was renamed in honor of Orbach. A portion of 53rd Street at Eighth Avenue will be renamed Jerry Orbach Way at a dedication ceremony Sept. 17 on the southwest corner of that block. The naming occurred as a tribute to him during a revival of The Fantasticks at the theatre. New York Times writers Ben Brantley and Richard Servero analyzed the breadth and scope of Orbach's career: Whether singing "Try to Remember" as the dashing narrator of "The Fantasticks" in 1960 or trading barbs with fellow detectives and reluctant witnesses on television in recent years, Mr. Orbach exuded a wry, ragged masculinity that was all his own. [26] In 2002, Orbach was named a "Living Landmark" by the New York Landmarks Conservancy, along with his Law & Order co-star Sam Waterston. Block, More Set for Virtual Edition of, U.K. Government Outlines Plans for Theatre Reopening, Including Potential Full Capacity in June, 16 Broadway Plays and Musicals You Can Watch On Stage From Home, Playbill Vault's Today in Theatre History: February 24, How Cody Renard Richard Became One of Broadway’s Brightest Stars From Backstage, Inside the Broadway Community Project: Meet Ben Cohn, Waving From the Orchestra at. JULIAN Come on along and listen to The lullaby of Broadway ... Good night, milkman's on his way Sleep tight, baby Sleep tight, let's call it a day! Featuring: Chris Noth, Jerry Orbach, S. Epatha Merkerson, Sam Waterston, Benjamin Bratt, Carey Lowell, Angie Harmon, George Dzundza. Re: Street Name Change – “Jerry Orbach Way” Manhattan Community Board #4 supports the proposal to add a street sign, “Jerry Orbach Way”, to the northwest corner of West 53rd Street and 8th Avenue. Since her husband's death, Elaine Orbach fought to have a portion of 53rd Street at Eighth Avenue renamed Jerry Orbach Way. On February 5, 2005, he was posthumously awarded a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series for his longtime role on Law & Order. (the last episode of the original series to feature Orbach) in honor of him. How rich was the actor and singer? The day after Orbach's death, the marquees on Broadway were dimmed in mourning, one of the highest honors of the American theatre world,[3] while NBC re-aired the Law & Order episode "C.O.D." [35], October 6, 2005. "[30], Author Kurt Vonnegut was a fan of Orbach, and during an Australian radio interview in 2005, he said, "People have asked me, you know, 'Who would you rather be, than yourself? As a star of musicals, he created a new kind of hero who was leagues away from suave, swaggering Adonises like John Raitt, Howard Keel, and Alfred Drake... And he flourished at a time when the Broadway musical hero was fast becoming an endangered species... His rough-edged individuality may account for his endurance on the Broadway stage in an era when other promising musical actors - including Larry Kert, Robert Goulet, and Robert Morse - proved unable to follow through on their breakthrough successes. The plans met with some resistance by local planning boards, but were overcome thanks to his popularity and his love of the Big Apple. Orbach, the Bronx-born Broadway song-and-dance man, died Dec. 28 following a decade-long, private battle with prostate cancer. [27] Orbach quipped that the honor meant "that they can't tear me down."[9]. [6][7] His mother, a native of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, was a Roman Catholic of Polish-Lithuanian descent, and Orbach was raised in her faith (a religious background later replicated in his character on Law & Order). Jerry Orbach died in 2004, and at his memorial people spoke of his extraordinary devotion to his wife, to whom he would write a poem every day. According to friends, she got sick with pneumonia in recent days and died in a Manhattan hospital April 1. [25] His wife Elaine died in 2009 at age 69, and his former wife Marta died in 2012 at age 79. American actor Jerry Orbach left college in 1955 to begin his acting career. [3] At the 64th Academy Awards, Orbach performed a live-action stage rendition of the Oscar-nominated song, "Be Our Guest", that he sang in Beauty and the Beast. I would go over to him and under my breath "What did you think?" Orbach attended Waukegan High School in Illinois and graduated in 1952 (having skipped two grades in elementary school due to his high IQ of 163[3]). Prominent roles included tough, corrupt NYPD narcotics detective Gus Levy in Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City; he was the 1981 runner-up for the NSFC Best Supporting Actor award. I watched his career from the time I was little. [24] Prior to his death, Orbach was signed to continue in the role of Lennie Briscoe on the new spin-off Law & Order: Trial by Jury, which was to accommodate his illness by giving him a lighter schedule than he had had on the original series, but he was only featured in the first two episodes, both of which aired following his death.[3]. 11: W 53rd St. in Manhattan has been named Jerry Orbach Way!. Jerry Orbach, the actor, was raised Catholic but is half Jewish on his father's side.
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