Damn.
The man made Law and Order.
He was set to star in a spinoff series called L&O: Trial by Jury. This must be taking a lot of people by surprise.
R.I.P. Mr. Orbach 
Wasn’t he also the all-time Celeb Jeopardy winner?
I’ll miss ya, “Lenny”.
Some links:
Playbill.com, the main theater website, which is still scrambling to put together their story.
The fine folks at All That Chat are shocked, too; some of them have good memories they’re sharing of shows they saw and meetings they had with Jerry. He was a class act offstage too.
NBC’s L&O page has reinstated the little figure of Jerry walking up to you and telling you to check out the game–I think they just added it since they’ve hastily truncated the main pic to put him in the side.
And finally, a French L&O fan has preserved Lennie’s full farewell (NBC happened to show that repeat last week, but they CUT PARTS OF THIS SCENE!!) here. It’s in English.
I have to add that I only knew him through L&O. I had no idea he had such a distinguished theater career.
He got the part on L&O because Dick Wolf saw him in a movie, where he played a hard-bitten detective.
Which movie was that?
I swear that I gasped a little bit when I first read the headlines. I’m a big L & O fan and this is hitting me like a slap in the face. Too sad for words…
I hope that in this situation the production company doesn’t follow the traditional impulse and just bury his last work on the new spinoff. Orbach was a fantastic actor and I loved him in the Brisco role. I want to see those episodes that he completed (if any) just to go back to it one last time…
Ooops, I didn’t see this when I created a new thread.
It’s so sad-I hadn’t even heard that he was sick, clueless little twit that I am. The first time I ever saw him was in Dirty Dancing and I’ve always liked him.
I agree, they need to do a funeral for Lennie. Do they do the whole shebang funeral with the guards and bagpipes for retired cops, or is it only cops slain in duty? Greevey got one-they OWE it to Lennie. And Logan and Curtis have to be there too. Especially Mike Logan.
Damn, he was only 69. That’s far too young.
BTW, those who are late to L&O might not even know that Jerry showed up in the first season, playing a defense attourney.
I was hoping for a complete recovery for him.
What a loss.
This ranks right up there, IMHO, with Phil Hartman’s tragic death.
Thank you Jerry!
I liked him a lot. I really enjoyed him in Crimes and Misdemeanors, where he played Martin Landau’s brother. I never watched L & O, but every time my wife and I saw his face on TV, we would do our Lumiere impressions, basically a fake French accent. “Sacre Bleu! Anozer murder!”
I’m a huge Law & Order fan. This is a terrible loss.
The lights will be dimmed tonight, according to Playbill. I have my primitive digital camera that can make mpg’s and I’ll stand on 44 or 45th and see if I can film it, and then get the French guy to host it.
RIP, Jerry. Mazel tov.
I mourn the passing of a legend.
R.I.P. Mr. Orbach.
Does anyone have contact info for Dick Wolf Productions? Maybe if enough of us write…
IIRC, Jerry’s leaving the show did not have the stigma of a strained relationship with Wolf, like Noth or Moriarity. Hopefully Mr. Wolf will be open to a tribute show.
Let’s see, he retired off the show, so let’s get his death rolled into a Whodunit L&O episode. We could bring bag Chris Noth and Benjamin Bratt, and maybe pull in the cast from SVU and CI (CI only if we must, though.)
They could do a two-hour episode at the height of sweeps in May. It’s the least they could do.
We’ll be taking pictures outside the Neder tonight.
Threads on both ATC and BroadwayWorld
Crimes and Misdemeanors is sitting on my desk in a pile of NetFlix. We are watching it tonight, no matter how tired I am.
My heart just breaks at the tought.
One of my favorite actors, and one hell of a song and dance man.
Here’s a link to the contact info for Wolf Films-
God DAMMIT! I loved Jerry Orbach. He was one of my favorite actors and the only reason to watch Law & Order. I am so sad that he’s gone.
Prince of the City with Treat Williams, if I’m not mistaken. But he’s played a lot of cops and assorted tough guys.