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. On behalf of his family, Sarah Shulman of Paradigm Talent Agency stated that Adler passed away quietly while he slept. The cause was not stated right away.
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.
In 2014, he told the Jewish Ledger that he came from a family of entertainers with a strong background in Jewish and Yiddish theater. His relative Stella Adler was a renowned acting instructor, and his father, Philip Adler, was a general manager for Broadway and the renowned Group Theatre.
Adler admitted to TheaterMania in 2015 that he 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, as the New York Times noted at the time, Adler’s planned retirement was averted when Donna Isaacson, the Public Eye’s casting director and a close friend of one of Adler’s children, had an idea about how to cast a difficult-to-fill job. Adler agreed to try out since he had been on the other side of auditions and wanted to see how performers felt. 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. In 2015, he told Forward that it was just intended to be a one-shot. 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 made his stage debut in Fish in the Dark, Larry David’s writing and acting 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 future acting roles, he told CT Insider at the time, “I’m ready to go at a moment’s notice.” He moved returned to his homeland of New York with his wife, Joan Laxman, from Connecticut in recent years. According to Shulman, his four daughters are among the survivors.
At first, it was strange to see Adler on TV because he used to think he was too silly-looking to act. In numerous interviews with different media, he also mentioned how odd it felt 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.
