{"id":105746,"date":"2025-08-24T03:53:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T03:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/105746\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T03:53:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T03:53:08","slug":"jerry-adler-late-blooming-actor-of-sopranos-fame-dies-at-96","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/105746\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerry Adler, Late-Blooming Actor of &#8216;Sopranos&#8217; Fame, Dies at 96"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-fluid img-aspect-5by6\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/35c4aef1a58340f8ad4d2215753ea2de_md.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/>\n                      Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Jerry Adler, the longtime theater director and late-in-life actor who memorably played Hesh on &#8220;The Sopranos,&#8221; died Saturday at 96.<\/p>\n<p>His friend Frank J. Reilly confirmed his death on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FrankJReilly1\/status\/1959337300531589279\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow\">X<\/a> Saturday, writing, &#8220;The great actor, my friend Jerry Adler died today&#8230; You know him from one of his iconic roles [and] from many of his guest appearances&#8230; He arranged to get my son a job on the Sopranos. Many years later, my son got him a job on Rescue Me. RIP to a real one.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Adler was born February 4, 1929, in NYC, to a man who managed Broadway theaters and touring shows. He went into the family business in 1950 as a stage manager on shows that included the iconic &#8220;My Fair Lady&#8221; (1956), later serving as a production supervisor on everything from &#8220;Annie&#8221; (1977) to &#8220;I Remember Mama&#8221; (1979).<\/p>\n<p>He also tried his hand at directing, helming the shows &#8220;Words and Music&#8221; (1974) and a 1976 revival of &#8220;My Fair Lady,&#8221; among others.<\/p>\n<p>For an actor with such a familiar face, it is incredible to realize he didn&#8217;t start acting until he was in his sixties, sucked into it in part because of his spectacularly expressive face.<\/p>\n<p>Adler racked up 60 TV and film credits in 28 years, debuting on an episode of &#8220;Brooklyn Bridge&#8221; in 1991. He was Mr. Wicker on &#8220;Mad About You,&#8221; appearing from 1993-1999, and made a big impression in Woody Allen&#8217;s &#8220;Manhattan Murder Mystery&#8221; (1993).<\/p>\n<p>Along with appearances on &#8220;Northern Exposure&#8221; (1994-1995) and as a regular on the series &#8220;Hudson Street&#8221; (1995-1996), &#8220;Alright Already&#8221; (1997-1998), and &#8220;Raising Dad&#8221; (2001-2002).<\/p>\n<p>Most famously, he played Jewish mob figure Herman &#8220;Hesh&#8221; Rabkin on &#8220;The Sopranos&#8221; (1999-2007), a trusted advisor of Tony Soprano, played by the late James Gandolfini.<\/p>\n<p>From 2007-2011, he played Sidney Feinberg on &#8220;Rescue Me,&#8221; and he was hilariously un-PC Howard Lyman on &#8220;The Good Wife&#8221; (2011-2016) and &#8220;The Good Fight&#8221; (2017-2018).<\/p>\n<p>He closed his acting career with guest spots on &#8220;Broad City&#8221; (2019), &#8220;Transparent&#8221; (2017-2019), and the revival of &#8220;Mad About You&#8221; (2019).<\/p>\n<p>Adler&#8217;s digital memorial is at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dignitymemorial.com\/obituaries\/new-york-ny\/jerry-adler-12496580\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dignity Memorial<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images Jerry Adler, the longtime theater director and late-in-life actor who memorably played Hesh on &#8220;The Sopranos,&#8221;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[687,88,42582],"class_list":{"0":"post-105746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-cancer","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-loni-anderson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}