The star of "Law and Order" died.

At the time of his death on December 28, 2004, he was described as a "versatile stage and film actor".[3]

He created roles such as El Gallo in the original off-Broadway run of The Fantasticks and was the first performer to sing that show's standard "Try to Remember".He was nominated for multiple Tony Awards and won for his performance in Promises, promises.[5]

He played supporting roles in films such as Prince of the City, Dirty Dancing, Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Disney's Beauty and the Beast.He had a recurring role on Murder, She Wrote as private detective Harry McGraw between 1985 and 1991, as well as a voice role in The ADVENTURES OF THE GALAXY RANGERS.He gained worldwide fame for his role in the original Law & Order series.[5]

The only child of Emily and Leon Orbach was born on October 20, 1935, in the Bronx.His father was an emigrant from Germany.He stated that his father was descended from Sephardic refugees.His mother was a Roman Catholic of Polish-Lithuanian descent and he was raised in her faith.He and his family lived in Mount Vernon, New York; Nanticoke, Pennsylvania; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Waukegan, Illinois.His high IQ made him skip two grades in elementary school, but he graduated from high school in 1952.He started acting in a speech class while he was on the football team.[13]

After graduating from high school, Orbach went to work at the theatre at Chevy Chase Country Club in Wheeling, Illinois, and then to the University of Illinois in the fall.Orbach returned to the Chicago area in 1953 and attended the university.He moved to New York City in 1955 to study at the Actors Studio, where one of his instructors was the studio's founder.[13]

Orbach went on to become an accomplished Broadway and off-Broadway actor.He played El Gallo in the original 1960 cast of The Fantasticks and was the first to perform the show's signature song and pop standard "Try To Remember".He played Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, which received a Tony Award nomination for Best featured actor in a musical.In the 1970s, Orbach appeared as a celebrity panelist on What's My Line?There is a Password and a Super Password.

In the 1980s, Orbach worked full-time on film and TV.In 1981 he was the runner-up for the best supporting actor award for his role in Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City.His future Law & Order co-star Sam Waterston was also in Crimes and Misdemeanors and F/X.The Law & Harry McGraw was a short-lived spin-off series of Murder, She Wrote that featured Orbach as a private detective.He played the father of the character "Baby" in Dirty Dancing.He received his first Emmy nomination for his appearances on The Golden Girls, Who's the Boss?, and Frasier.

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 Lumire.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.He reprised his voice role of Lumire for multiple episodes of Disney's House of Mouse, as well as the deleted song "Human Again", which was added to the Beauty and the Beast 2002 IMAX film.[16][17]

In the third season of Law & Order, Orbach joined the cast as a wisecracking NYPD homicide detective.He was cast as the new senior detective after Paul Sorvino left the show.Dick Wolf, the creator of Law & Order, had personally suggested to Orbach to play the role of Briscoe that he had played in Prince of the City.The third longest-serving main cast member in the show's 20-year history was Orbach, who starred on Law & Order for 11 and a half seasons.The series won the 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series and spawned a franchise that included the TV film Exiled.The Sopranos lost out on a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.One of the greatest television detectives of all time was named by TV Guide.[19]

During his time on Law & Order, Orbach provided the voice of the main antagonist Sa'luk in Aladdin and the King of Thieves, as well as co-starred with Al Pacino in Chinese Coffee, which was filmed in the summer of 1997.[4]

He had two sons with his wife, Anthony Nicholas and Christopher Benjamin.They divorced in 1975.Tony is a crossword puzzler who has published more than 25 puzzles in The New York Times.Chris Orbach is an actor and a singer who played Ken Briscoe in the first season of Special Victims Unit.

Jerry Orbach married Elaine Cancilla in 1979.It was 21 and 22.

He lived in a high-rise on 53rd Street off Eighth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen.He was a regular at some of the Italian restaurants nearby, and his glossy publicity photo hangs in Ms. Buffy's French Cleaners.The intersection of 8th Avenue and 53rd Street was renamed in honor of Orbach.His love of the Big Apple helped overcome the local planning boards' resistance to the plans.[23]

Less than two years into his stint on Law & Order, Orbach was diagnosed with cancer.Radiation therapy was initially used to treat the cancer, but by December 1994, it had returned and spread.He continued to star on Law & Order while he was on hormone therapy.After leaving the series at the end of the 2003-04 season, he underwent treatment for his cancer at a New York cancer center, but he succumbed to the disease on December 28, 2004.Despite being diagnosed with cancer more than a decade before his death, Orbach's illness was not revealed to the general public until just weeks before he died.The new spin-off Law & Order: Trial by Jury, which was to accommodate his illness by giving him a lighter schedule than he had on the original series, was signed prior to his death.[4]

The marquees on Broadway were darkened in mourning, one of the highest honors in the American theatre world, while NBC aired the Law & Order episode "C.O.D."In honor of him, the last episode of the original series was dedicated to him.The Criminal Intent episode "view from up here" was dedicated to Orbach, as well as the Law & Order episodes "Mammon" and "Baby Boom".

His sons, wife, and former wife are all dead, as is his mother and two grandsons.His mother died at the age of 101.His wife Elaine died at the age of 69, and his former wife died in 2012 at age 80.Jerry Orbach wanted his eyes to be donated after he died.Two individuals, one who needed correction for a nearsighted eye and the other a farsighted one, received Orbach's corneas.An ad campaign for Eye Bank for Sight Restoration used his likeness.Orbach was buried at Trinity Church Cemetery.[4]

Jerry Orbach is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 1999.Law & Order co-star Sam Waterston was named a "Living Landmark" by the New York Landmarks Conservancy.The honor meant that they can't tear me down.[9]

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 role on Law & Order.Elaine accepted the award on his behalf.

On September 18, 2007, a portion of New York City's 53rd Street was renamed in his honor.[29]

The theater on 50th Street and Broadway in New York City was named for him in 2007.The theatre had a revival of The Fantasticks that was named after him.

René Balcer, the executive producer of Law & Order, was quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying "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."[30]

During an Australian radio interview in 2005, Kurt Vonnegut said, "People have asked me, you know, 'Who would you rather be, than yourself?'"He replied "Jerry Orbach, without a question..."He's adorable, I talked to him one time.[31]

The breadth and scope of Orbach's career was analyzed by New York Times writers.