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 confirmed on Saturday 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 as Herman ‘Hesh’ Rabkin on The Sopranos, has died at 96; pictured in 2014 in NYC
Adler worked in the theatre for decades and was the brother 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