Jerome Bernard Orbach was an American actor and singer, described at the time of his death as "one of the last bona fide leading men of the Broadway musical and global celebrity on television" and a "versatile stage and film actor". Over his career he received a Tony Award and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award.
Orbach's career began on the New York stage, both on and off-Broadway, where he created roles such as El Gallo in the original off-Broadway run of The Fantasticks where he was the first performer to sing that show's standard "Try to Remember". He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for playing Chuck Baxter in the musical Promises, Promises. He was Tony-nominated for portraying Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls and Billy Flynn in the original Chicago. He also acted in Annie Get Your Gun and 42nd Street.
He gained worldwide fame for starring as NYPD Detective Lennie Briscoe on the original NBC legal series Law & Order series from 1992 to 2004.