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Jerry Orbach passes away
Actor Jerry Orbach Dead at 69
Jerry Orbach, the veteran television and film actor best known for his work on the long-running TV hit "Law & Order," has died in New York. The death was confirmed through Orbach's agent. Within the past month, it was announced that Orbach had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He had left the cast of "Law & Order," but was due to star in a spin-off of the series. Orbach was one of the best-known characters on "Law & Order," playing detective Lenny Briscoe for many years. Orbach had a long career on and off Broadway and in films. One of his better-known film roles was playing the father of Jennifer Gray in "Dirty Dancing." He began his acting career in the long-running off-Broadway play, "The Fantasticks." He was nominated for Tony awards for his roles in "Chicago" and "Guys and Dolls." :( |
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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:(
:( :( Lennie Briscoe - one of my favorite television characters of all-time. |
Mother fucker! That sucks ass! :(
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Wow. That is awful.
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1010 WINS EXCLUSIVE: JERRY ORBACH DEAD AT 69 Dec 29, 2004 9:36 am US/Eastern (1010 WINS) (NEW YORK) 1010 WINS has learned that "Law and Order" star Jerry Orbach has died of prostate cancer at the age of 69. His manager, Robert Malcolm confirmed Orbach's death this morning. Born Jerome Orbach, on October 20, 1935, in the Bronx, New York. The only child of Emily (nee O'Lexy), a greeting card manufacturer, and Leon Orbach, a restaurant manager. Since neither of his parents were strangers to the performing arts (his father had tried vaudeville and his mother once had a stint as a radio singer), they were always supportive of Jerry’s desire to be an actor. While Jerry was still in grade school, the family moved frequently but finally settled in Waukegan, Illinois, where he joined the football team and began learning basic acting techniques from his speech teacher. In 1952, following his high school graduation, he worked in summer stock at the Chevy Chase Country Club in Wheeling, Illinois, where he got to try his hand at everything from minor performances to set building. After attending the University of Illinois for one year, Jerry transferred to Northwestern University, where he continued to study the Stanislavsky method of drama. In the fall of 1955, Orbach decided to forego his senior year at Northwestern and move to New York City, where he found work as an understudy in The Threepenny Opera. He stayed with the show for over three years, eventually playing the lead character, Mack the Knife. During this time, he continued to study acting under the tutelage of Herbert Berghof, Mira Rostova, and Lee Strasberg of The Actor’s Studio. In 1959, he received two simultaneous acting offers: one for a Broadway production paying $250 a week and the other for an off-Broadway show paying only $45 a week. Orbach chose the latter and created the role of El Gallo in the off-Broadway production The Fantastiks, which met exceptional reviews and became the longest running off-Broadway show in history. Orbach left the show in 1961 to make his Broadway debut in David Merrick’s production of Carnival! and won rave reviews for both his singing and his acting. Following this success, Orbach experienced a brief slump; discouraged about being typecast in musicals, he spent a few miserable months trying unsuccessfully to break into films in Hollywood. However, he hit his stride once again when he returned to the East and earned a Tony nomination for his portrayal of Skye Masterson in Guys and Dolls and made a stunning, critically acclaimed performance as a neurotic Jewish intellectual in Scuba Duba. He then went on to win a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 1969 for his portrayal of Chuck Baxter in Promises, Promises, a Neil Simon adaptation of Billy Wilder’s 1960 film The Apartment. In 1976, he received another Tony nomination for his role in Chicago. He last appeared on Broadway in 1981, playing Julian Marsh in 42nd Street at the Majestic Theatre in New York. Launching off from his illustrious theater career, Orbach began to move increasingly toward roles in film and television in the 1980s and 1990s. He was a recurring guest star on Murder, She Wrote and played the title role in its short-lived spin-off, The Law and Harry McGraw. His stint in Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound (1991) and his frequent appearances on the sitcom The Golden Girls both earned him Emmy nominations. His first major supporting film role came in Sidney Lumet’s drama Prince of the City (1981), and he followed up with the crime-thriller F/X in 1986. In 1987, he changed pace, playing the stern but loving father of a rebellious teenage girl in the runaway hit Dirty Dancing, costarring Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze, still his best-known movie role. He then lent his voice and personality to the loquacious lantern, Lumiere, in the animated musical Beauty and the Beast (1991). Most recently, he starred in Chinese Coffee (2000) with longtime friend Al Pacino, who also produced and directed the film. Orbach first appeared on the critically acclaimed NBC series Law & Order in 1990 and in 1992 landed a regular role on the show, playing the quick-witted and sharp-tongued Detective Lennie Briscoe. Orbach and actress/writer Marta Curro, who was a fellow understudy in The Threepenny Opera, married in June 1958 and had two sons, Anthony and Christopher, before divorcing in 1975. In 1979, Orbach married Elaine Cancilla, who had replaced Chita Rivera as his co-star in the 1975 production of Chicago. They live in New York City. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- JERRY ORBACH CREDITS Cop Hater (1958), Twenty Four Hours in a Woman's Life (TV-1961), Mad Dog Coll (1961), Ensign Pulver (1964), John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (1965), Annie Get Your Gun (TV-1967), The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971), A Fan's Notes (1972), Fore Play (1975), The Sentinel (1977), Underground Aces (1980), Prince of the City (1981), An Invasion of Privacy (TV-1983), Brewster's Millions (1985), F/X (1986), Dream West (TV miniseries-1986), The Imagemaker (1986), Out on a Limb (TV-1987), Love Among Thieves (TV-1987), Dirty Dancing (1987), Someone to Watch Over Me (1987), I Love N.Y. (1988), Perry Mason: The Case of the Musical Murder (TV-1989), The Flamingo Kid (TV-1989), Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), In Defense of a Married Man (TV-1990), Kojak: None So Blind (TV-1990), Perry Mason: The Case of the Ruthless Reporter (TV-1991), Coney Island (TV voice-1991), Out for Justice (1991), Toy Soldiers (1991), Delusions (1991), Delirious (1991), Beauty and the Beast (voice-1991), Dead Women in Lingerie (1991), California Casanova (1991), A Gnome Named Gnorm (1992), Broadway Bound (TV-1992), Quiet Killer (TV-1992), Straight Talk (1992), Universal Soldier (1992), Mr. Saturday Night (1992), Mastergate (TV-1992), The Cemetery Club (1993), Disney Sing-Along-Songs: Be Our Guest (voice-1994), Aladdin and the King of Thieves (voice-1996), Beauty and the Beast: Enchanted Christmas (voice-1997), Belle's Magical World (voice-1997), Chinese Coffee (2000), Prince of Central Park (2000), The Acting Class (2000) TV Series: The Law and Harry McGraw (1987), The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (voice-1988), Encounters With the Unexplained (host-2000), House of Mouse (voice-2001) |
Unexpected, and sad. Great actor.
What a lot of people don't know is that he was the Candlestick in Beauty and the Beast. |
Wow. I knew he had prostate cancer, but things I had heard said that he was going to be OK. It will be interesting to see how all of the L+O series acknowledge this.
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Jerry Orbach dies of prostate cancer. :(
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index&cid=762
NEW YORK - "Law & Order" star Jerry Orbach has died of prostate cancer at age 69, a representative of the show said. Orbach announced last month he had been diagnosed with the disease. Orbach, 69, starred for 12 seasons in the original "Law & Order" series, but left to head the spin-off "Law & Order: Trial by Jury," set to debut next year. His representatives had said Orbach was receiving treatment since spring, but refused to discuss how advanced the illness was or the nature of the treatment. Orbach began playing Detective Lennie Briscoe in 1992, the original show's third season. Born in the Bronx, he was in the original cast of the off-off-Broadway hit "The Fantasticks" and has appeared in such films as "Dirty Dancing," "Prince of the City" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors." Dammit, I loved him on L&O. :( RIP |
Originally Posted by DGibFen
It will be interesting to see how all of the L+O series acknowledge this.
Particularly, TBJ. |
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I am truly saddened.
There's a thread over in the Otter Farm title "Would you cry if an actor died?"... he is one of the actors that I would mourn. Bye Briscoe. |
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:( |
Originally Posted by Goldberg74
There's a thread over in the Otter Farm title "Would you cry if an actor died?"... he is one of the actors that I would mourn.
Yeah - I have to admit that I came pretty darn close. |
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Already a thread in TV Talk.
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Omg :(
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Originally Posted by Red Dog
Already a thread in TV Talk.
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A very sad day. He will be missed. :(
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It's really too bad. :(
I never watched L&O but always thought he was one of the better reasons to watch Dirty Dancing. RIP Jerry... |
That's just awful. Lenny Briscoe was one of the greatest characters in TV history.
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The manager, on a Fox News interview just now, said Orbach had been fighting the cancer for about ten years....very impressive to still be so productive and good at it, while going through that health battle, *and* keeping it hidden [at least I didn't know about it.]
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10 years...wow.
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Remarkable to see someone who doesn't achieve real mainstream fame until their late 50s, but at that late point in life becomes a universally recognized superstar. He was able to end his career on top.
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The flagship show just hasn't been the same snice he left it. I was looking forward to TBJ just to see him again.
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