Jerry Orbach

Jerome Bernard Orbach (October 20, 1935 – December 28, 2004) was an American actor and singer, described at the time of his death as "one of the last bona fide leading men of the Broadway musical and global celebrity on television" and a "versatile stage and film actor." Over his career he received a Tony Award and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award. Orbach's career began on the New York stage, both on and off-Broadway, where he created roles such as El Gallo in the original off-Broadway run of The Fantasticks (1960) where he was the first performer to sing that show's standard "Try to Remember". He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for playing Chuck Baxter in the musical Promises, Promises (1968–1972). He was Tony-nominated for portraying Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls (1965) and Billy Flynn in the original Chicago (1976). He also acted in Annie Get Your Gun (1966) and 42nd Street (1980). He gained worldwide fame for starring as NYPD Detective Lennie Briscoe on the NBC legal drama Law & Order from 1992 to 2004. For the role he earned the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series as well as a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. He reprised the role across several series including Homicide: Life on the Street (1996–1999), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–2000), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001), and Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005). He also played private detective Harry McGraw in the CBS murder-mystery series Murder, She Wrote (1985–1991), and The Law & Harry McGraw (1987–1988). On film, Orbach often took numerous supporting roles such as a detective in the crime drama Prince of the City (1981), a coach in the comedy film Brewster's Millions (1985), an overly protective father in romance film Dirty Dancing (1987), and a mobster in the drama Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). He voiced Lumière the Candlestick in the Walt Disney animated musical film Beauty and the Beast (1991).