Goodbye, Lennie.

Like fellow celebrities Robert Deniro, Sarah Jessica Parker, Chris Noth, Woody Allen, and Spike Lee, Jerry Orbach represented New York to millions around the world. Somewhere between Broadway and Briscoe, his weathered features made their way into our collective consciousness as a typical New Yorker:

New York oozed from Jerry Orbach, the Bronx-born T.V. cop with the smart-aleck comment on his lips and the take-out coffee cup in his hands.

"I live it, love it and represent it," the "Law & Order" star, who lived in Midtown and died Wednesday, once said.


He was a longtime advocate for better wages for police officers, appearing at rallies with the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and at events for slain officers' families.

"He played a cop on T.V., but he absolutely had respect for them," said Patrick Lynch, the PBA president. Officers routinely thanked him.

The rest of the city related to his on-screen temperament -- his prickly shell and sentimental interior, his even tone, his sense of fairness.

"There's a feeling that I am a typical New Yorker -- and everyone else seems to agree," he told a Scottish paper in 2002. "I'm the guy on the street who everybody waves to."

[full story from Newsday]