<P> Orbach was born on October 20, 1935, in the Bronx, the only child of Emily (née Olexy), a greeting card manufacturer and radio singer, and Leon Orbach, a restaurant manager and vaudeville performer . His father was a Jewish emigrant from Hamburg, Germany . Orbach stated that his father was descended from Sephardic refugees from the Spanish Inquisition . His mother, a native of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, was a Roman Catholic of Polish - Lithuanian descent, and Orbach was raised in her faith (a religious background later replicated in his character on Law & Order). Throughout his childhood, the Orbach family moved frequently, living in Mount Vernon, New York; Wilkes - Barre, Nanticoke, and Scranton, Pennsylvania; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Waukegan, Illinois . Orbach attended Waukegan High School in Illinois and graduated in 1952 (having skipped two grades in elementary school due to his high IQ). He played on the football team and began learning acting in a speech class . The summer after graduating from high school, Orbach worked at the theatre of Chevy Chase Country Club of Wheeling, Illinois, and enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana--Champaign in the fall . In 1953, Orbach returned to the Chicago area and enrolled at Northwestern University . Orbach left Northwestern before his senior year and moved to New York City in 1955 to pursue acting and to study at the Actors Studio, where one of his instructors was the studio's founder, Lee Strasberg . </P> <P> Orbach was an accomplished Broadway and off - Broadway actor . His first major role was El Gallo in the original 1960 cast of the decades - running hit The Fantasticks, and Orbach became the first to perform the show's signature song and pop standard "Try To Remember". He also starred in The Threepenny Opera, Carnival!, the musical version of the movie Lili (his Broadway debut), in a revival of Guys and Dolls (as Sky Masterson, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical), Promises, Promises (as Chuck Baxter, winning a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical), the original productions of Chicago (as Billy Flynn, receiving another Tony Award nomination), 42nd Street, and a revival of The Cradle Will Rock . Orbach made occasional film and TV appearances into the 1970s and appeared as a celebrity panelist on both What's My Line? and Super Password . </P> <P> In the 1980s, Orbach shifted to film and TV work full - time . Prominent roles included a superb performance as tough, effective, but "allegedly corrupt" NYPD narcotics detective Gus Levy in Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City; he was the 1981 runner - up for the NSFC Best Supporting Actor award . He also portrayed gangsters in both the action - thriller F / X and the Woody Allen drama Crimes and Misdemeanors (the latter of which also featured his future Law & Order co-star Sam Waterston). In 1985, Orbach became a regular guest star on Murder, She Wrote as private detective Harry McGraw, which led to him starring in the short - lived spin - off series The Law & Harry McGraw . In 1987, he was featured in the hit film Dirty Dancing as Dr. Jake Houseman, the father of Jennifer Grey's character "Baby". He made further TV appearances on popular shows such as The Golden Girls (for which he received his first Emmy nomination), Who's the Boss?, and Frasier (as a guest caller). </P> <P> In 1991, Orbach starred in Disney's Academy Award - winning animated musical Beauty and the Beast, as the voice (both singing and speaking) of the French - accented candelabrum Lumière, which according to Orbach, he played "halfway between Maurice Chevalier and Pepé Le Pew". At the 64th Academy Awards, Orbach performed a live - action stage rendition of the Oscar - nominated song, "Be Our Guest", that he sang in Beauty and the Beast . He later reprised his voice role of Lumière for the film's direct - to - video sequels, multiple episodes of Disney's House of Mouse, and the previously - deleted song ("Human Again") that was added to the Beauty and the Beast 2002 IMAX re-release . In 1992, Orbach joined the main ensemble cast of Law & Order as the world - weary, wisecracking, streetwise NYPD homicide detective Lennie Briscoe . He had previously guest - starred as a defense attorney on the series, and was subsequently cast as the new "senior detective" following Paul Sorvino's departure . Orbach's portrayal of Detective Briscoe was based on his similar role from Prince of the City years before, which Law & Order creator Dick Wolf had personally suggested to him at the time of his casting . </P>

Actor who played the father in dirty dancing
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