Friday, Dec. 31, 2004 8:25 A.M.
To Viewers and Police, Jerry Orbach Was Briscoe
By MICHAEL WILSON
Published: December 31, 2004
To most of the world, a New York City detective is a cynical, sarcastic flatfoot with alimony headaches and a smart mouth - "Crazy don't mean stupid. My ex-wife's living proof." He survives on a strict diet of street-cart coffee and hot dogs and pretzels with mustard. When he gets to the crime scene, he asks, "Whatta we got?" and when he claps the handcuffs on his suspects or says something clever, two deep metallic sounds ring out: DOYNG-DOYNG!
To many people with television sets, the actor Jerry Orbach, as Detective Lennie Briscoe on "Law & Order," was as close as it got to one of New York City's 6,000 real detectives. He could be found at work every day, cracking cases and cracking wise in syndication and reruns around the clock. His death on Tuesday night felt to many in the New York City Police Department like a loss of one of their own.
"He was, to a lot of people in the rest of world, the face of the New York Police Department," said Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, speaking quietly, even solemnly, after a press conference on Wednesday. "He did it very well. He has human frailties, and he overcame them. He portrayed New York City police officers as hard working, but as human beings with the same pressures and intentions human beings have. It was very believable."
Next to nothing was ever revealed about Briscoe's personal life. All viewers ever saw was the detective at work, all bright teeth and old ties, even on the day after Mr. Orbach died. It was a rerun on Wednesday, the one in which the antiwar protester gets killed. "Well," Briscoe said after meeting one right-wing suspect, "I don't particularly like him, but I don't like him for Teague's murder, either."
DOYNG-DOYNG.
Detectives might not talk that way all the time, but that does not mean they don't want to. Lennie Briscoe, city detectives said, was the most real fake police officer they had ever seen.
"He epitomized the veteran New York City detective," said Detective Bob Mistretta, 52, of the Manhattan district attorney's squad, himself a 30-year veteran. "Nothing surprised him, nothing shocked him. That's how it gets. He was an alcoholic. I believe he lost a daughter in the show. It's someone that goes through what everyone else goes through."
"He always had the little smart remark," he said. "If he was the perfect detective who had every answer, it wouldn't be realistic."
One detective, in Manhattan's First Precinct, manages, by coincidence, to sound like Briscoe every time he picks up the telephone and says his name, Matthew Briscoe.
"I answer the phone and say, 'First Squad, Briscoe,' and they say, 'Come on, are you joking? Is this Lennie?' " he said.
Like many police officers, he has a general policy of avoiding police shows - or as they are called by officers, "buff shows" - because only a complete police buff could work all day and go home and watch a police show. The crime scene investigation franchise, for example, is unwatchable to many police officers, including Lennie Briscoe, who said in one episode, "Those crime scene guys are overrated. They all think they're cops."
But "Law & Order"? That was all right. "A lot of shows are exaggerated, or they don't show enough," the nonfictional Detective Briscoe said. "That show was, like, hands-on, almost. They don't always get the bad guys. Sometimes, they lose."
Detective Otis Hunt, 36, of the narcotics unit, is a longtime fan; he watches "Law & Order" on any number of cable channels after work. "TNT, USA, I come home late and boom, it's on," he said. He actually learned a few things watching Mr. Orbach. "I liked his tactics," he said. "He wasn't overly aggressive. He was a people person." And Lennie was not just a cop. He was a New Yorker, too, known to drop local insider remarks on the show, like "Meatpacking district, home of the straight and narrow," and, "New Hampshire: I spent a year there one weekend."
Mr. Orbach lived off Eighth Avenue in Hells Kitchen near the Midtown North precinct. "He'd be walking down the block, and he'd always stop by and say hello," said James Heaphy, 41, a recently retired detective with 20 years on the job and a new ambition: acting. "Watching guys like Jerry Orbach making it look so natural, you think, 'I can do that,' " he said.
Michael J. Palladino, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association, remembers meeting Mr. Orbach in California in a restaurant shortly after the actor's 1981 performance as a corrupt detective in the movie "Prince of the City." Almost a quarter-century later, he was presenting Mr. Orbach a certificate of appreciation for his work on "Law & Order."
One lieutenant observed yesterday that Mr. Orbach went out like many older veterans, dying too soon after his retirement to collect his pension. Briscoe retired at the end of last season. In the final episode, he and his partner closed a case that ended in a conviction.
Packing his desk in what could be any squad room in the city, Detective Briscoe said, "It's nice to go out with a win."
DOYNG-DOYNG.
I personally loved his character. If you read me often, you know that my all time favorite shows are the three Law & Order shows. We watch them in all their reruns too. It is so bad that the first two minutes of a show will scarcely be done and either Terry or I will say, "Oh, this is the one where ....." Yup we are faithful.
A few other articles I have read say much the same about Mr. Orbach. He was in life, a very good guy and a serious New Yorker.
He will be missed my many including me. Though he had retired from the Law & Order show, he was going to be an occasional face as a consultant on Law & Order - Trial by Jury. The are going to show the first few that were already taped after the new year. I hope so.
I was surprised last night. On any show, when an actor has died, the next episode usually pays tribute, but never in the reruns have I seen it. I did last night. Cudos to TNT for paying trubute right before the rerun aired.
I am still sad. After watching him for 12 years, I feel as though I've lost a friend.
