NEW YORK -- Actor Jerry Orbach, who earned a reputation as the quintessential New Yorker through his work in films and as a longtime star of the "Law & Order" television series, has died from prostate cancer. He was 69.
Orbach, whose best-known films included "Prince of the City," "Crimes and Misdemeanors" and "Dirty Dancing," was diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier this month.
He died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York Tuesday evening, a hospital spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Dick Wolf, creator and producer of "Law & Order," called Orbach "a legendary figure of 20th century show business, who was a star of screen, stage and television."
Orbach starred for 12 seasons in the original "Law & Order" television series as Detective Lennie Briscoe and was set to star in a new spinoff from the franchise later this year.
A lanky actor with a deep voice and a slicked mop of dark hair, Orbach first made his name on Broadway, winning a Tony for "Promises, Promises." He was also in the original cast of "Chicago" and "42nd Street."
Broadway theaters will dim their lights on Wednesday night to honor him, the League of American Theatres and Producers said.
Born in the Bronx, he was the son of a former vaudevillian and a radio singer. He went to the University of Illinois and Northwestern University before returning to New York where he studied acting with method-acting guru Lee Strasberg and singing with Mazel Schweppe.
He first made a name for himself as something of a song and dance man making his New York debut in Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's "The Threepenny Opera" before creating the role of El Gallo in New York's longest-running Off-Broadway musical, "The Fantasticks."
Orbach made his Broadway debut in "Carnival" and received his first Tony nomination for the 1965 revival of "Guys and Dolls."
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