Uneasy Rhetoric

Jerry Orbach was (is) one of the two reasons I watch Law and Order (the other being Sam Waterson). Lenny was a gritty, troubled cop who played by the rules but didn’t always like them. This put him at odds with the old, tired Hollywood story about the cop who is always breaking the rules but who gets the bad guy in the end. These “Dirty Harry” cops are always one dimensional. Law and Order’s writers created a much more complex character in Lenny, and Orbach played it well. The new season, sans Orbach, just isn’t the same.

IMDB can never to justice to the career of an actor like Orbach because Orbach was a hard working actor who spent the better part of his career on stage (nevertheless, it takes a while to scroll through his credits).

Orbach was a hard-working actor who cared about his craft. One obit mentions that he took a lower paying, off-Broadway gig over an on-Broadway gig.

From Reuters:

Broadway theaters will dim their lights on Wednesday night to honor him, the League of American Theatres and Producers said.

So sad.