I’m in the library and starting to cry. The man was fantastic!
What a loss.
Damn.
He hardly had any time to enjoy his retirement. What a terrible blow.
Oh, the gangster guy from F/X and one time extra-marital fling with Dorothy on Golden Girls. Didn’t know who this was until I saw the picture.
He also starred in the original musical The Fantastics.
Deep in December, it’s hard to remember…
Oh man, what a bummer. If anyone fit a role perfectly, it was Jerry Orbach on ‘Law and Order’. It was just tailor-made for him.
I’ve never watched Law and Order or its spinoffs, but I’ve seen and enjoyed much of the rest of Orbach’s work.
Terribly sad. 69 is way too young for anyone to die.
I saw him in 42nd Street (the show, not the street) when it first opened—top-rate musical-comedy actor. I thought the show sucked, but he was terrific.
(So, I guess he and Susan Sontag are the “people who died too late to be in magazines’ year-end round-ups” this year?)
He was a major star on Broadway as well as in movies and TV. The entertainment world overall just lost one of their best.
That sucks.
I couldn’t help but think that, on a show that specializes in stories “ripped from the headlines,” that this would be one headline that deserves to be ripped. The death of Briscoe would make a great episode.
Fred Ebb, Cy Coleman and now Jerry Orbach. Broadway is hurting.
So long, Lenny!
I’ve always liked Orbach’s work, but he was especially good as detective Lenny Briscoe. I’ll be watching more reruns on TNT (and, I think, A&E). It’s a damn shame he didn’t have more time.
From a different generation, I knew him best as Mr. Houseman in Dirty Dancing and Lumiere the Candlestick in Beauty and the Beast. He become one of my favorite faces and voices to watch for, and always delivered a fine performance. He was a guy I believed as “Dad.” Condolences to those who actually knew him - I’m saddened who only knew the characters he created.
He wasn’t in retirement. He was filming the latest Law & Order spinoff, Law & Order: Trial By Jury, which was going to be based around him as the lead character.
This is awful news! He was a great man and a fantastic actor.
I think we should officially ban agents/PR folks from saying that someone is going to make a “full recovery.” It only gets our hopes up and hurts that much more when they’re terribly, horribly wrong.
What a loss to both Hollywood and Broadway.
Oh no! I had heard he was having prostate troubles but had no idea it was so serious! What a loss!
I’m a huge theater fan and he was a great booster of the stage; he still had his singing chops and sang recently at a great number of benefits and fundraisers. He was a popular fixture of NY society and got his smiling face in a tux in all the papers at this or that big party or charity ball.
Here’s his Broadway credits from the Broadway IMDB. NYC Dopers, keep an eye out for dimmed marquees at curtain time today or tomorrow on Broadway.
I’m listening to ‘Try to Remember’ right now, and I’ve queued up ‘Round and Round’ and the tour-de-force ‘I Can See It’. I’ll pick up the original CHICAGO cast recording today–in the recent Broadway PBS documentaries we did get to see him perform his Billy Flynn.
Cy Coleman, Fred Ebb, Uta Hagen, now Jerry–all irreplaceable.
Deep in December it’s nice to remember
Without a hurt the heart is hollow…
No no no no no no. It can’t be! Not Lennie!
He didn’t look sick on his last episode. I agree with Snoooopy. They need to work his death into the show. What a fitting tribute.
And no passing comment from Van Buren either. I want to see Detective Green weeping over his coffin. I’m sure the actor is already crying anyway.
That’s almost scary, Mehitabel. I’m listening to the AccuRadio Broadway feed, and they played “Try to Remember” pretty much the same time you were listening it.
I just started watching Law and Order recently, but I’m very sorry to hear this.
Headed to RENT tonight and was thinking that the lights will probably be dimmed