Jerry Orbach

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Jerry Orbach was an American actor and singer, born in 1935 in the Bronx. His father performed in vaudeville and his mother was a radio singer. He grew up in various cities, took acting lessons at school and in 1955 went to New York to study at the Actors Studio. His career began on the stage, on and off Broadway.

Music and breakthrough

In 1960 he played El Gallo in the first off-Broadway production of The Fantasticks. He was the first to sing the song Try to Remember, which later became a standard in popular music. He made his Broadway debut in Carnival!. He also played Billy Flynn in the first production of Chicago and appeared in 42nd Street. For his role as Chuck Baxter in Promises, Promises he won a Tony Award for best actor in a musical. He was called one of the last true leading men of the Broadway musical.

Influence

In the 1980s he worked mainly in film and television, with roles in Prince of the City, Dirty Dancing and Crimes and Misdemeanors. In the Disney film Beauty and the Beast he voiced Lumière. He became known worldwide as Detective Lennie Briscoe in the series Law and Order, which he played from 1992 to 2004. Orbach died at the end of 2004. His place in the history of popular music is that of the musical singer, who with a single production sent a song out into the world.

Listening