Thursday, December 30, 2004

Try to remember.

Alas, Jerry Orbach passed. Maybe this will put the breaks on Dick Wolf's oversized ego and the fourth L&O spin-off, but I doubt it. I first became aware of Orbach as frequent guest star on Murder, She Wrote and then as recurring character Harry McGraw, which led to his failed spin-off The Law and Harry McGraw. Most know him as Lennie Briscoe from Law and Order, an institution if not the best police procedural ever. I have to go with both Homicide and Wiseguy as superior even with much shorter runs. Recently I discovered he had a long and distinguished earlier career in the theater, on and off-Broadway. Hey, he even introduced "Try to Remember" in the long-running off-Broadway show, The Fantasticks. That ladies and gentlemen is A CAREER!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Orbach was also the voice of Lumiere, the French-accented talking candelabra (sp?) in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. He was GREAT! Au bientot, Jerry. (KoE)

G. E. Light said...

I'm really not disneyphobic (and isn't it interesting that the teapot was played by jessica Fletcher I mean Angela Lansbury?); just wasn't going for a completist obit. But thanks for the cite.