Goodbye, Jerry

Aw, man. I liked Jerry Orbach. Rest in Peace.



Biography from Yahoo.

New York native and Northwestern University alumnus Jerry Orbach has often commented, without false modesty, that he is fortunate indeed to have been a steadily working actor since the age of 20. After training with Herbert Berghof and Lee Strasberg, the lanky, deep-voiced Orbach received his first off-Broadway job as an understudy in the popular 1955 revival of The Threepenny Opera, eventually playing the lead role of MacHeath. During the Threepenny run, Orbach made his first film appearance in the Manhattan-filmed low budgeter Cop Killer (1958). In 1960, Orbach created the role of flamboyant interlocutor El Gallo in the off-Broadway smash The Fantasticks. That musical is still running, but Orbach has since starred in such Broadway productions as Carnival (1961), Promises Promises (1966), Chicago (1975) and 42nd Street (1983). By day, Orbach made early-1960s appearances in several New York-based TV series, notably The Shari Lewis Show. At first, Orbach's film assignments were infrequent, but starting with 1985's Brewster's Millions, the actor managed to show up in at least one movie per year. His more fondly remembered screen roles include the part of Jennifer Grey's father in Dirty Dancing (1987), the voice of the Chevalieresque candellabra in the Disney cartoon feature Beauty and the Beast (1990), and Billy Crystal's easily amused agent in Mr. Saturday Night (1992). On TV, Jerry Orbach has starred in the 1985 Murder She Wrote spinoff The Law and Harry McGraw, and was one of the many revolving-door regulars on the 1990s cop series Law and Order.