Gen-Xers may remember the lovably houndfaced actor Jerry Orbach as Baby Houseman's father in the film Dirty Dancing, and children might recognize him as the voice of the anthopomorphic singing candelabra named Lumière in Disney's animated feature Beauty and the Beast. However, Orbach is probably best known for his role as the misanthropic, acerbic-tongued NYPD homicide detective Lennie Briscoe in NBC's Emmy-winning drama Law & Order. At a television program that utilizes the revolving door method of casting (there are precisely zero original cast members left on the show, and most of the major roles have seen multiple replacements), Orbach holds the record as the longest running cast member at 12 years, 1992-2004.
Biography
Jerome Bernard Orbach was born on October 20, 1935 in the Bronx, New York. His father was a vaudevillian comedian turned restauranteur, and his mother was a greeting card manufacturer who had enjoyed a brief career as a radio singer. During Orbach's childhood, the family moved around a great deal, finally settling in Waukegan, Illinois. Orbach developed an interest in both acting and music during his years in high school, and went on to study the Stanislavsky method of drama at the University of Illinois and Northwestern University. In 1955, Orbach dropped out of his senior year at Northwestern to move to New York City and pursue a career as an actor.
After an initial period of unemployment, Orbach had little trouble finding work, as his training and natural talent for singing won him parts in a string of musicals, both on and off Broadway. He created the role of El Gallo in The Fantasticks, earned Tony nominations for his work in Guys and Dolls and later, Chicago, and won the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Chuck Baxter in Neil Simon's Promises, Promises in 1969. Though Orbach's career on the stage was extremely successful and earned him much critical acclaim, his real interest lay in the direction of television and film.
Jerry Orbach found it difficult to procure off-stage work, as his success in musicals caused him to be typecast. His first role in a feature film was in 1958's totally forgettable Cop Hater, in which he played street gang leader Mumzer Sanchez. He went on to play minor roles in a long line of movies, where his characters were usually either gangsters or cops (his role as a WASPish physician in Dirty Dancing was a rare exception). He took the leading role in just one movie, The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, a 1971 comedy about the Mafia featuring a very young Robert De Niro in a supporting role. After his first and last hurrah as a leading man, Orbach managed to carve out a niche for himself as a respected character actor. Some of his other notable films include Prince of the City (1981), F/X (1986), and Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).
During the 1980's, Orbach made countless guest appearances on a wide variety of television shows, and provided his voice for the cartoon series Galaxy Rangers. He had a recurring role as Harry McGraw on Murder, She Wrote (starring the prudish - and prunish - Angela Lansbury, who coincidentally would end up providing the voice of Mrs. Potts the teapot in Beauty and the Beast). This led to his starring role in the spinoff series The Law and Harry McGraw, which proved to be a dismal failure that was cancelled after just one season. Orbach read for a part as a police detective in Law & Order in both 1989 and 1991, and finally landed the role of Lennie Briscoe in 1992.
After a dozen years of entertaining television audiences with his cynical one-liners, Briscoe bid farewell to the fictitious precinct in the season finale aired in May 2004. However, Jerry Orbach intended to stay with the Law & Order franchise (by now, an insanely popular and profitable affair that included two spin-off shows and three PC games). Orbach would continue to portray the character of Lennie Briscoe, this time as a D.A. Investigator on yet another new spin-off series Law & Order: Trial by Jury, scheduled to begin airing in 2005.
Sadly, in early December 2004 Orbach's publicist announced that the actor had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Jerry Orbach died in Manhattan on December 28, 2004 at the age of 69. He is survived by his wife and two children.
Interesting Tidbits
Orbach holds the record as the highest scoring contestant on celebrity Jeopardy!. He donated his $34,000 in winnings to the charity Bide-A-Wee, a humane society that sponsors the adoption of stray animals.
He once worked as Mae West's personal chauffeur.
Jerry Orbach first appeared on Law & Order in a guest spot as sleazy defense lawyer Frank Lehrman, representing a middle-aged woman who murdered her ex-husband and his considerably younger lover. A year after the guest appearance, he joined the regular cast as Detective Briscoe, who ironically professes a profound dislike for lawyers in general and defense attorneys in particular.
Law & Order routinely employs family members of the regular cast in bit parts. Jerry Orbach's cousin, Ron Orbach, has appeared in at least three different episodes. His son, Chris Orbach, also appeared in three episodes, and had a recurring role as Detective Ken Briscoe in the spinoff series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Filmography
Theater
Movies (not including those that were made for TV)
Sources:
Courrier, Kevin. Law & Order. Los Angeles: Renaissance Books. 1998.
http://www.aande.com/tv/shows/laworder/bios/bio_actor_orbach.html
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Orbach,+Jerry
http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/jeopardy/cont/winners_list_celebrity_chmps.html
http://www.lentriola.com/dbnotes/lnorbac.htm
http://www.hoppybird.com/kb.html