{"id":94082,"date":"2025-08-24T18:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T18:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/94082\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T18:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T18:26:07","slug":"sopranos-star-jerry-adler-broadway-backstage-vet-turned-late-in-life-actor-dies-at-96","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/94082\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Sopranos’ Star Jerry Adler, Broadway Backstage Vet Turned Late-In-Life Actor, Dies At 96"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Jerry Adler, who spent decades behind-the-scenes of storied Broadway productions<\/a> before pivoting to acting in his 60s, has died at 96.<\/p>\n

Adler died Saturday, according to a brief family announcement confirmed by the Riverside Memorial Chapel in New York.<\/p>\n

Among Adler\u2019s acting credits are \u201cThe Sopranos,\u201d<\/a> on which he played Tony Soprano adviser Hesh Rabkin across all six seasons, and \u201cThe Good Wife,\u201d<\/a> where he played law partner Howard Lyman. But before Adler had ever stepped in front of a film or television camera, he had 53 Broadway productions to his name \u2014 all behind the scenes, serving as a stage manager, producer or director.<\/p>\n

He hailed from an entertainment family with deep roots in Jewish and Yiddish theater, as he told the Jewish Ledger<\/a> in 2014. His father, Philip Adler, was a general manager for the famed Group Theatre and Broadway productions, and his cousin Stella Adler was a legendary acting teacher.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a creature of nepotism,\u201d Adler told TheaterMania<\/a> in 2015. \u201cI got my first job when I was at Syracuse University and my father, the general manager of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, called me (because) there was an opening for an assistant stage manager. I skipped school.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a long theater career, which included the original production of \u201cMy Fair Lady\u201d and working with the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Julie Andrews and Richard Burton, among many others, Adler left Broadway during its 1980s slump. He moved to California, where he worked on television productions like the soap opera \u201cSanta Barbara.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really getting into the twilight of a mediocre career,\u201d he told The New York Times<\/a> in 1992.<\/p>\n

But the retirement he was contemplating was staved off when Donna Isaacson, the casting director for \u201cThe Public Eye\u201d and a longtime friend of one of Adler\u2019s daughters, had a hunch about how to cast a hard-to-fill role, as The New York Times reported then. Adler had been on the other side of auditions, and, curious to experience how actors felt, agreed to try out. Director Howard Franklin, who auditioned dozens of actors for the role of a newspaper columnist in the Joe Pesci-starring film, had \u201cchills\u201d when Adler read for the part, the newspaper reported.<\/p>\n

So began an acting career that had him working consistently in front of the camera for more than 30 years. An early role on the David Chase-written \u201cNorthern Exposure\u201d paved the way for his time on a future Chase project, \u201cThe Sopranos.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen David was going to do the pilot for \u2018The Sopranos\u2019 he called and asked me if I would do a cameo of Hesh. It was just supposed to be a one-shot,\u201d he told Forward<\/a> in 2015. \u201cBut when they picked up the show they liked the character, and I would come on every fourth week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Films included Woody Allen\u2019s \u201cManhattan Murder Mystery,\u201d but Adler was perhaps best known for his television work. Those credits included stints on \u201cRescue Me,\u201d \u201cMad About You,\u201d \u201cTransparent\u201d and guest spots on shows ranging from \u201cThe West Wing\u201d to \u201cBroad City.\u201d <\/p>\n

He even returned to Broadway, this time onstage, in Elaine May\u2019s \u201cTaller Than a Dwarf\u201d in 2000. In 2015, he appeared in Larry David\u2019s writing and acting stage debut,<\/a> \u201cFish in the Dark.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do it because I really enjoy it. I think retirement is a road to nowhere,\u201d Adler told Forward, on the subject of the play. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t know what to do if I were retired. I guess if nobody calls anymore, that\u2019s when I\u2019ll be retired. Meanwhile this is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adler published a memoir, \u201cToo Funny for Words: Backstage Tales from Broadway, Television and the Movies,\u201d last year. \u201cI\u2019m ready to go at a moment\u2019s notice,\u201d he told CT Insider<\/a> then, when asked if he\u2019d take more acting roles. In recent years, he and his wife, Joan Laxman, relocated from Connecticut back to his hometown of New York.<\/p>\n

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For Adler, who once thought he was \u201ctoo goofy-looking\u201d to act, seeing himself on screen was odd, at least initially. And in multiple interviews with various outlets, he expressed how strange it was to be recognized by the public after spending so many years working behind the scenes. There was at least one advantage to being preserved on film, though, as he told The New York Times back in 1992.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m immortal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Jerry Adler, who spent decades behind-the-scenes of storied Broadway productions before pivoting to acting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75,55090,55089],"class_list":{"0":"post-94082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-jerry-adler","13":"tag-sopranos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}