Hesh Rabkin on ‘The Sopranos’ was 96
Jerry Adler, a former Broadway producer and manager who turned to the public and became known to the public as Hesh Rabkin on ‘The Sopranos’, died on Saturday. He was 96.
Adler’s death was confirmed by the Riverside Memorial Chapel In New York.
After having worked behind the scenes on Broadway and in television production for decades, he weighed up for the casting director of the thriller “The Public Eye” from 1992, a friend of one of Adler’s daughters, convinced him to read for director Howard Franklin. His role immediately positioned him as a much sought after character actor for the rest of his life.
On HBO’s ‘The Sopranos’, Adler played in all six seasons such as Hesh Rabkin, a Jewish loan shark who was a friend of Tony Soprano’s father and a consultant remains the lead of James Gandolfini in the series. Adler was also on display on FX’s fire drama “Rescue Me” as a fire brigade commander Sidney Feinberg, and played the lawyer Howard Lyman on CBS’s “The Good Wife”.
Film credits are the comedy of Woody Allen “Manhattan Murder Mystery”, the JC Chandor -thriller “a most violent year” and in his nineties, to be seen in Andrew Ahn’s thoughtful indisprum “Rise”.
Adler, born on February 4, 1929 in Brooklyn, New York, was destined for the entertainment industry. His father was general director of the Group Theater and Broadway Productions; His cousin was Stella Adler, one of the most prominent acting teachers in history. In his backstage career, Adler made more than 50 credits on Broadway Productions. In the 1980s he moved to California and started working in television.
Adler published a memoirs, “Too Funny For Words: Backstage Tales From Broadway, Television and the Movies”, in 2024.
He is survived by his wife, Joan Laxman.
