Jerry Adler, the actor and theatre director best known for his long-running role on The Sopranos, has died at 96.
Adler’s death was announced on Saturday by his family and confirmed in a post on X by his friend Frank J. Reilly.
‘The great actor, my friend Jerry Adler died today at the age of 96,’ Reilly wrote, while sharing photos of Adler in some of his best-known roles, as well as a photo of himself with his late friend. ‘You know him from one of his iconic roles had from many of his guest appearances. Not bad for a guy who didn’t start acting until he was 65. Check out his IMDb page.’
The late actor had a decades-long career in the theatre, but he was a late bloomer on screen and only began appearing in films and television in the early 1990s.
One of his first major film roles was in Woody Allen‘s acclaimed mystery–comedy Manhattan Murder Mystery in 1993, and he later had major roles on shows including Mad About You, Rescue Me, The Good Wife and Transparent.
But it was his role on the era-defining HBO series The Sopranos as Herman ‘Hesh’ Rabkin that defined Adler’s legacy.
Jerry Adler, the actor and theatre director best known for his long-running role on The Sopranos, has died at 96; pictured in 2014 in NYC
He played Herman ‘Hesh’ Rabkin, a Jewish loan shark and former recording industry executive who was one of the most trusted advisors to Tony Soprano (the late James Gandolfini) on HBO’s era-defining series; pictured with Gandolfini on The Sopranos
Adler’s death was announced on Saturday by his family and confirmed in a post on X by his friend Frank J. Reilly (pictured)
His character was a Jewish loan shark and former recording industry executive who was one of the most trusted advisors to Tony Soprano (played by the late James Gandolfini).
Adler made his series debut on the pilot episode and continued with the series well into its sixth and final season in 2007.
Gandolfini later died in 2013 at age 51 of a heart attack.
In his 2024 memoir Too Funny For Words: Backstage Tales from Broadway, Television, and the Movies, Adler revealed that he initially accepted his role on The Sopranos against his doctor’s orders.
‘I was stricken with terrible stomach pains and went to my doctor in New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital. I wound up with gastric problems and required an operation,’ he wrote.
Adler, who admitted warning Chase that he didn’t ‘sing’ because he didn’t realize The Sopranos was a show about the mafia, ending up leaving the hospital the night before he was to arrive on set even though his surgeon advised him not to.
After filming his scene, he had to go back to the hospital to continue recuperating before filming his next scene.
Adler’s first major recurring series character was on Mad About You, on which he played the building maintenance man, Mr. Wicker.
Adler made his series debut on the pilot and continued with The Sopranos into its final season in 2007. Gandolfini died at 51 in 2013 of a heart attack; pictured in 2004 on top (L–R): Sopranos stars Steve Schirripa, George Loros, Adler, Arthur J. Nascarella, Dan Grimaldi, Gandolfini, Tony Darrow and Robert Funaro. Bottom row: Joseph Gannascoli, Tony Sirico and Steven Van Zandt
Adler worked in the theatre for decades and was the cousin of famed acting teacher Stella Adler, but he only began appearing in films and TV in the 1990s when he was in his 60s; seen on The Good Wife
Adler — seen standing in the center with his surviving Sopranos costars and colleagues in June 2024 in NYC — revealed in his memoir that year that he appeared in the Sopranos pilot against his doctor’s orders
Adler had just had surgery, but he left the hospital the night before he was to be on set for his first scene despite his surgeon’s protestations, though he returned to the hospital to continue recuperating before he was due back on set; seen in 2019 with costar Vincent Pastore
He was a recurring character on the later seasons of the Denis Leary starring firefighter series Rescue Me, and he was featured on 30 episodes of CBS’ The Good Wife, as well as two more episodes in which he reprised his character, Howard Lyman, on the sequel series The Good Fight.
Adler’s final television roles were all in 2019, including a humorous turn as a Holocaust survivor who leaves his assisted-living home for a day out with his distant relative (played by series co-lead Ilana Glazer), only for her to lose track of him at a drag brunch.
Adler, who was born on February 4, 1929, in Brooklyn, got his first big break in the theatre thanks to his father, Philip Adler, who had been a stage manager for major Broadway productions.
The senior Adler was working on a production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1950, a year after its debut, when he approached his son — then a student at the University of Syracuse — to offer him the role of assistant stage manager.
‘I skipped school,’ Adler admitted in a 2015 interview with TheaterMania, in which he joked, ‘I’m a creature of nepotism.’
Adler — who was also the cousin of the influential acting teacher Stella Adler — later worked on productions of Of Thee I Sing; My Fair Lady, starring a 19-year-old Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison; The Apple Tree, which starred Alan Alda and Barbara Harris and was directed by Mike Nichols; and Harold Pinter’s classic play The Homecoming, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Adler rose up the ranks behind the scenes, scoring jobs as stage manager, production manager or production supervisor on those productions, before graduating to directing plays.
In a 2015 interview with The Forward, Adler recalled his time working on TV in 1992 on the soap opera Santa Barbara — but as the stage manager, not an actor — when he got a call from a friend looking to cast him in The Public Eye, which starred Joe Pesci.
One of Adler’s first major film roles was in Woody Allen’s acclaimed comedy Manhattan Murder Mystery. He’s pictured in a publicity still for the film with costar Lynn Cohen, who later appeared with him again in Charlie Kaufman’s 2008 film Synecdoche, New York
After becoming a bigger star than ever beginning in his 60s, Adler made it back to Broadway in 2000 for a production of Elaine May’s Taller Than A Dwarf. Fifteen years later, he joined a production of Fish In The Dark, which Larry David wrote and starred in; seen in 2009 in NYC
‘My friend wanted me to meet with the director [Howard Franklin], and the first thing he said to me was how much I reminded him of his father,’ he recalled. ‘I was actually surprised. I’d never acted before. I’d never entertained the idea of acting; it was an unusual thing. But I was getting ready to retire from the production end, anyway. So it became kind of interesting.’
For his second feature role, he scored a major part in 1993’s Manhattan Murder Mystery, which was written and directed by Woody Allen and starred Allen with Diane Keaton, Alan Alda and Anjelica Huston.
Adler played a man suspected of murdering his wife, played by Lynn Cohen. The two later reunited as a married couple in Charlie Kaufman’s 2008 meta-comedy Synecdoche, New York, which starred the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.
His later film roles included A Most Violent Year (2014) — opposite Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac — and 2019’s Driveways, which starred Oscar-nominee Hong Chau and Brian Dennehy in his final role.
After becoming a bigger star than ever beginning in his 60s, Adler made it back to Broadway in 2000 for a production of Elaine May’s Taller Than A Dwarf. Fifteen years later, he joined a production of Fish In The Dark, which Larry David wrote and starred in.
Adler is survived by his wife, the psychologist Joan Laxman, whom he was married to since 1994.
