Post by Patcat on Mar 25, 2005 11:09:47 GMT -5
Here's the report on the tribute from today's NEW YORK TIMES.
March 25, 2005
Try to Remember: New York Bids Farewell to Jerry Orbach
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD
he many families of Jerry Orbach gathered yesterday to salute his life and career at the Richard Rodgers Theater, celebrating his achievements as an actor on the very stage that brought him one of his greatest Broadway roles - Billy Flynn in the original production of "Chicago" - and his wife of more than 25 years, Elaine, whom he met when she joined the cast as a standby for Chita Rivera in 1976.
Mr. Orbach's immediate family was joined by a virtual Who's Who of "Law & Order" stars, from Chris Noth to S. Epatha Merkerson to B. D. Wong, Richard Belzer and Bebe Neuwirth. That family overlapped a bit with Mr. Orbach's brethren from his days as one of the last great song-and-dance men on Broadway, represented by the actresses Angela Lansbury, Jane Alexander and Karen Ziemba; Gerald Schoenfeld, chairman of the Shubert Organization; and the producer Martin Richards, among others.
But even this clan was easily outnumbered by the family of New Yorkers who saluted Mr. Orbach as one of their own, the Bronx-born man who had come to personify the city in the eyes of television audiences.
Mr. Orbach died in December of prostate cancer at age 69.
His "face was synonymous with New York City," said the host of his memorial service, Sam Waterston, who played the upright prosecutor to Mr. Orbach's down-home detective for many seasons on "Law & Order." He admitted to being in awe of Mr. Orbach's ability to "do so much so well," and he introduced Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who paid tribute to the man who, as Detective Lennie Briscoe on "Law & Order," dispensed "enough one-liners to fill a Centre Street holding cell."
Mr. Orbach was indeed a man of many faces, as the ceremony made clear. He could play pinochle, poker and pool with the same skill and seriousness that he brought to acting. He could keep easy company with a Teamster, but he was just as at home at center stage, dancing with a verve and fleetness that belied his regular-guy charisma.
Many of the speakers noted that the traits television viewers came to associate with Lennie Briscoe - a steely armor of seen-it-all humor covering a heart of infinite compassion - were Mr. Orbach's own.
Richard Brown, who has taught film at New York University and the New School, was a close friend. He recalled his surprise at discovering that Mr. Orbach was free of the usual celebrity appurtenances - the publicists and handlers who provide insulation from the abrasions of contact with the real world. Mr. Orbach "chose to make his life not about celebrity or even talent, but about compassion and kindness," he said before introducing clips of Mr. Orbach in the films "Prince of the City," "Dirty Dancing" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors."
But Dick Wolf, the creator of "Law & Order," probably said it best. "In a business in which schadenfreude is a polite emotion," he observed, "Jerry is the only person nobody ever had a negative word to say about." At the end of the ceremony, Mr. Wolf, joined by Jeff Zucker, the president of television for NBC Universal Television Group, presented a check for $1 million made out to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for prostate cancer research.
There was also a little music: Ms. Ziemba, whose first role on Broadway was opposite Mr. Orbach in the 1980 production of "42nd Street," sang "They Were You," an elegiac love song from "The Fantasticks," in which Mr. Orbach first made his mark as a musical leading man as El Gallo.
And there was even some poetry. Ed Sherin, a former executive producer of "Law & Order," paid tribute to his friend with a reading of a Shakespeare sonnet. Later, Ms. Alexander, who is married to Mr. Sherin and starred on Broadway with Mr. Orbach in "6 Rms Riv Vu," read a dozen of the hundreds of short poems that Mr. Orbach composed for his wife every day before leaving for work on "Law & Order." (Mr. Orbach's love for his wife and family was a theme sounded perhaps even more than his generosity of spirit to co-workers and colleagues.)
The Shakespeare was touching. So was the Orbach. But the Orbach was funnier.
March 25, 2005
Try to Remember: New York Bids Farewell to Jerry Orbach
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD
he many families of Jerry Orbach gathered yesterday to salute his life and career at the Richard Rodgers Theater, celebrating his achievements as an actor on the very stage that brought him one of his greatest Broadway roles - Billy Flynn in the original production of "Chicago" - and his wife of more than 25 years, Elaine, whom he met when she joined the cast as a standby for Chita Rivera in 1976.
Mr. Orbach's immediate family was joined by a virtual Who's Who of "Law & Order" stars, from Chris Noth to S. Epatha Merkerson to B. D. Wong, Richard Belzer and Bebe Neuwirth. That family overlapped a bit with Mr. Orbach's brethren from his days as one of the last great song-and-dance men on Broadway, represented by the actresses Angela Lansbury, Jane Alexander and Karen Ziemba; Gerald Schoenfeld, chairman of the Shubert Organization; and the producer Martin Richards, among others.
But even this clan was easily outnumbered by the family of New Yorkers who saluted Mr. Orbach as one of their own, the Bronx-born man who had come to personify the city in the eyes of television audiences.
Mr. Orbach died in December of prostate cancer at age 69.
His "face was synonymous with New York City," said the host of his memorial service, Sam Waterston, who played the upright prosecutor to Mr. Orbach's down-home detective for many seasons on "Law & Order." He admitted to being in awe of Mr. Orbach's ability to "do so much so well," and he introduced Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who paid tribute to the man who, as Detective Lennie Briscoe on "Law & Order," dispensed "enough one-liners to fill a Centre Street holding cell."
Mr. Orbach was indeed a man of many faces, as the ceremony made clear. He could play pinochle, poker and pool with the same skill and seriousness that he brought to acting. He could keep easy company with a Teamster, but he was just as at home at center stage, dancing with a verve and fleetness that belied his regular-guy charisma.
Many of the speakers noted that the traits television viewers came to associate with Lennie Briscoe - a steely armor of seen-it-all humor covering a heart of infinite compassion - were Mr. Orbach's own.
Richard Brown, who has taught film at New York University and the New School, was a close friend. He recalled his surprise at discovering that Mr. Orbach was free of the usual celebrity appurtenances - the publicists and handlers who provide insulation from the abrasions of contact with the real world. Mr. Orbach "chose to make his life not about celebrity or even talent, but about compassion and kindness," he said before introducing clips of Mr. Orbach in the films "Prince of the City," "Dirty Dancing" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors."
But Dick Wolf, the creator of "Law & Order," probably said it best. "In a business in which schadenfreude is a polite emotion," he observed, "Jerry is the only person nobody ever had a negative word to say about." At the end of the ceremony, Mr. Wolf, joined by Jeff Zucker, the president of television for NBC Universal Television Group, presented a check for $1 million made out to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for prostate cancer research.
There was also a little music: Ms. Ziemba, whose first role on Broadway was opposite Mr. Orbach in the 1980 production of "42nd Street," sang "They Were You," an elegiac love song from "The Fantasticks," in which Mr. Orbach first made his mark as a musical leading man as El Gallo.
And there was even some poetry. Ed Sherin, a former executive producer of "Law & Order," paid tribute to his friend with a reading of a Shakespeare sonnet. Later, Ms. Alexander, who is married to Mr. Sherin and starred on Broadway with Mr. Orbach in "6 Rms Riv Vu," read a dozen of the hundreds of short poems that Mr. Orbach composed for his wife every day before leaving for work on "Law & Order." (Mr. Orbach's love for his wife and family was a theme sounded perhaps even more than his generosity of spirit to co-workers and colleagues.)
The Shakespeare was touching. So was the Orbach. But the Orbach was funnier.