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">Most Americans only know him from television and his dramatic
roles or, maybe, they remember him as the father (who didn't sing or
dance!) in Dirty Dancing but he was a leading song and dance man/star on
Broadway in many hits.
Orbach was an accomplished Broadway and off-Broadway actor. His first
major role was El Gallo in the original cast of the decades-running hit The Fantasticks. He
also starred in The Threepenny Opera, Carnival!, the musical version of
the movie Lili (his Broadway debut), in a revival of Guys and Dolls (as Sky Masterson,
receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical), Promises,
Promises (as Chuck, receiving a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical),
the original productions of Chicago (as Billy Flynn, receiving a Tony
Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical), 42nd
Street, and a revival of The Cradle Will Rock. In 1955, he
played an uncredited bit part in the movie version of Guys and
Dolls[4] - he plays a barber
shop customer during the musical number, "The Oldest Established," and is given
a solo during one of the song's "Nathan, Nathan Detroit!!" choruses. Orbach made
occasional film and TV appearances into the 1970s.
In the 1980s, he shifted to film and TV work on a more full-time basis.
Prominent roles included a corrupt police detective in Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City; Jennifer Grey's father in
Dirty Dancing;
and a gangster in the Woody
Allen drama Crimes and Misdemeanors. He starred
in the short-lived 1987 crime drama The Law
and Harry McGraw, in a role he later reprised as a regular guest star on
Murder, She
Wrote. He also appeared as a celebrity panelist on both What's My Line? and Super Password. He also guest starred on the
sitcom The Golden
Girls.
In 1991, Orbach starred in the Academy Award-winning animated musical Beauty and the
Beast, as the voice of the candelabrum Lumière, a role he would
reprise in the film's direct-to-video sequels. He also voice actedvideo game spin-offs of the
series. That same year, he played a police captain in Steven Seagal's Out for Justice and appeared as a defense
attorney in the Law & Order episode "The Wages of Love". In 1992,
Orbach joined the main cast of Law & Order as world weary,
wisecracking police detective Lennie Briscoe. He remained on the show until 2004
and became one of its most popular characters. TV GuideLaw & Order: Trial by
Jury, but appeared in only the first two episodes of the series. Both
episodes aired in March 2005, after his death. The fifth episode of the series,
"Baby Boom," and the Law & Order: Criminal
Intent episode "View from Up Here" was dedicated to his memory.