Jerry Adler, an actor best known for series-spanning roles on The Sopranos and The Good Wife, has died. He was 96. According to the obituary released by his family, Adler died Saturday, August 23.
Adler was born in 1929. His father, Philip Adler, was general manager of The Group Theater — home of actors and writers like his cousin Stella Adler, Clifford Odets, Elia Kazan,Sidney Lumet, and Zero Mostel. Adler saw the Group help Mostel evade HUAC. “They dressed him up in all kinds of costumes at the end of the show so he could get out the theater and they wouldn’t serve him papers,” he told J Weekly in 2006.
Adler spent the bulk of his life as a stage manager. He managed or assistant managed Broadway shows like My Fair Lady and The Apple Tree. “I’m a creature of nepotism,” Adler told TheaterMania in 2015. “I 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.”
Adler didn’t start acting until his 60s. Less than a decade into his career, he got the part of loan shark Herman “Hesh” Rabkin on The Sopranos. He made appearances on the show from the pilot until its final season in 2007. After that, he had another long run on The Good Wife as Stern, Lockhart & Gardner partner Howard Lyman. “The intent was only to have him for one episode of THE GOOD WIFE,” showrunner Robert King tweeted Sunday, “but he was so funny in a diner scene, yelling ‘I said ice cream, you stupid bitch’ we had him back for six years of Good Wife and three years of Good Fight. One of our favorite collaborators.” Adler also had recurring roles on shows like Transparent and Broad City. “Not bad for a guy who didn’t start acting until he was 65,” his friend Frank J. Reilly tweeted.
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