Written by Mallika Sen
NEW YORK (AP) Before switching to acting in his 60s, Jerry Adler worked behind the scenes of legendary Broadway productions for decades. He passed away at the age of 96.
Adler passed away on Saturday, the Riverside Memorial Chapel in New York revealed in a brief family statement.
Adler’s acting credits include roles in The Good Wife as legal partner Howard Lyman and The Sopranos, where he played Tony Soprano adviser Hesh Rabkin for all six seasons. However, Adler had experience behind the scenes in 53 Broadway musicals as a stage manager, producer, or director before he ever stood in front of a camera for a movie or television show.
According to what he told the Jewish Ledger in 2014, he came from a family of entertainers with a strong background in Jewish and Yiddish theater. His cousin Stella Adler taught acting in elementary school, and his father, Philip Adler, was the general manager of the renowned Group Theatre and Broadway shows.
TheaterMania reported in 2015 that Adler was a product of nepotism. When I was a student at Syracuse University, I received my first job offer when my father, the general manager of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, called me to let me know that an assistant stage manager position was available. I didn’t go to school.
Adler left Broadway during the 1980s depression after a lengthy career in theater that includes the original production of My Fair Lady and collaborations with Marlene Dietrich, Julie Andrews, and Richard Burton, among many others. He relocated to California and began working on TV shows, such as the serial opera Santa Barbara.
In 1992, he told The New York Times, “I was really getting into the twilight of a mediocre career.”
However, The New York Times stated at the time that Donna Isaacson, the Public Eye’s casting director and a close friend of one of Adler’s children, had a suspicion that prevented him from retiring. Adler wanted to know what actors thought because she had been on the opposite side of auditions. The newspaper said that when Adler read for the part, director Howard Franklin, who tried out dozens of actors for the position of a newspaper columnist in the Joe Pesci movie, had shivers.
He thus started an acting career that lasted more than 30 years, during which he was always in front of the camera. His tenure on The Sopranos, another production directed by David Chase, began with an early stint on Northern Exposure.
David called me to ask if I would make a cameo as Hesh when he was filming the pilot for The Sopranos. According to Forwardin (2015), it was only intended to be a one-time event. However, they liked the character when they took up the show, and I would appear every four weeks.
Woody Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery was one of the films, but Adler’s television work is arguably what made him most famous. These credits includes guest appearances on programs ranging from Broad City to The West Wing, as well as appearances on Rescue Me, Mad About You, and Transparent.
In 2000, he even made a comeback to Broadway, this time onstage, in Taller Than a Dwarf, directed by Elaine May. He had an appearance in Fish in the Dark, Larry David’s writing and performing theatrical debut, in 2015.
I truly enjoy doing it, therefore I do it. Regarding the play’s theme, Adler told Forward, “I think retirement is a road to nowhere.” If I were retired, I would be at a loss about what to do. I suppose I’ll be retiring if no one calls any more. This is fantastic in the interim.
Too Funny for Words: Backstage Tales from Broadway, Television, and the Movies, Adler’s memoir, was released last year. When asked if he will take on further acting jobs, he told CT Insider that he was ready to go at any time. He moved returned to his homeland of New York with his wife, Joan Laxman, from Connecticut in recent years.
At first, it was strange to see Adler on TV because he used to think he was too silly-looking to act. In several interviews, he also mentioned how odd it was to be acknowledged by the general public after so many years of working in the background. But as he told The New York Times in 1992, there was at least one benefit to being captured on film.
“I am eternal,” he declared.
