Jerry orbach last photo
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Jerry Orbach
(1935-2004)
Who Was Jerry Orbach?
American actor Jerry Orbach left college in 1955 to begin his acting career. He played El Gallo in The Fantasticks and won a Tony Award in 1969 for his role in Promises. Moving to television, Orbach was a recurring guest star on Murder, She Wrote and The Golden Girls. In film, he played the father of Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing. Orbach's best known TV role was as Detective Lennie Briscoe on Law & Order.
Early Life
Jerome Bernard Orbach was born on October 20, 1935, in the Bronx, New York. The only child of Emily (nee O'Lexy), a greeting card manufacturer, and Leon Orbach, a restaurant manager. Since neither of his parents were strangers to the performing arts (his father had tried vaudeville and his mother once had a stint as a radio singer), they were always supportive of Orbach's desire to be an actor. While Orbach was still in grade school, the family moved frequently but finally settled in Waukegan, Illinois, where he joined the football team and began learning basic acting techniques from his speech te
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Jerry Orbach was born in the Bronx, New York, the only child of Leon Orbach, a former vaudevillian actor, was a German Jewish immigrant, who was born in Hamburg, Germany, and Emily (nee Olexy), a radio singer, was born in Pennsylvania to immigrant Polish-Lithuanian Roman Catholic parents, Alexander Olexy and Susanna (nee Klauba). The family moved frequently. He spent part of his childhood in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania and eventually settled in Waukegan, Illinois, where he went to high school.
The constant moving made him the new kid on the block and forced him to become "a chameleon" to blend in his new settings. He studied drama at the University of Illinois and at Northwestern University. He then went to study acting in New York and got constant work in musicals. He slowly pushed to get acting roles in television and films after being overlooked due to his musical roots.
Orbach died at age 69 on December 28, 2004, after a decade-long battle with prostate cancer. His widow, Elaine Cancilla Orbach died on April 1, 2009, from pneumonia. Orbach and Cancilla both predeceas
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Jerry Orbach
Born
October 20, 1935
The Bronx, New York City, U.S.
Died
Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Cause of death
Prostate cancer
Spouse(s)
(m. 1958; div. 1975)
Elaine Cancilla(m. 1979)
Orbach's professional 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) and became the first performer to sing that show's standard "Try To Remember"; Billy Flynn in the original Chicago (1975–1977), and Julian Marsh in the original 42nd Street (1980–1985). Nominated for multiple Tony Awards, Orbach won for his performance as Chuck Baxter in
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