Mae West's friend Jerry Orbach Died

"Try to Remember"

Try to remember that time in September
When grass was green
And grain was yellow
Try to remember . . .
When you were a young and callow fellow . . .
(themesong sung by Jerry Orbach in "The Fantasticks")

Try to remember when Mae West's friend Jerry Orbach was alive. . .

- - excerpt from 'L&O's' Orbach personifies New York cop
MULTI TALENTED PERFORMER BROKE in with MAE WEST By David Hiltbrand [Knight Ridder] - -

. . . . "My idols were Brando and Montgomery Clift,'' Jerry Orbach says, sitting in his LAW & ORDER trailer. "Years ago, what I really wanted to do was movies, but they weren't offering them to me.''
Orbach's first troupe mates, in summer stock at the Chevy Chase Playhouse in Wheeling, Ill., were Mae West, Vincent Price and John Ireland.
It was 1952, and he had just graduated from high school.
On October 20, 1935, Orbach was born in the Bronx to a Polish Catholic mother from Pennsylvania and a German Jewish father whose ancestry was Spanish Sephardic. The family often moved when he was a boy, living in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where his grandfather was a coal miner, before settling near Chicago. Orbach studied drama at Northwestern University and with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. His first film was ``Cop Hater'' (1958). "`I was a teenage hoodlum,'' he says. ``Bobby Loggia was the young cop, and Telly Savalas was a police sergeant. . . . This was before he shaved his head.'' Soon afterward, he created the role of El Gallo in "The Fantasticks,'' singing "Try to Remember'' in the off-Broadway play, which ran for 40 years. His singing landed him a string of musicals, including ``42nd Street,'' "Chicago'' and a revival of "Guys and Dolls.'' He won a Tony Award in 1969 for his starring role in "Promises, Promises.'' But he couldn't get traction in Hollywood. . . .

For awhile Orbach worked as a chauffeur for Mae West . . . .

- - excerpt from 'L&O's' Orbach personifies New York cop
MULTI TALENTED PERFORMER BROKE in with MAE WEST By David Hiltbrand [Knight Ridder] - -

How I Got My Equity Card By Jerry Orbach

"I graduated high school at 16. My drama teacher got me on as an apprentice at a summer stock theatre just north of Chicago. My jobs went from hauling gravel, to building scenery, to being Mae West's driver! The following summer I was hired for a year-round stock company in Evanston, Illinois, and transferred to Northwestern University. That's when, while playing a bit part in A TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL with Lillian Gish and Kim Stanley, I got my Equity Card. I was 17! That's fifty years ago this summer."