‘Sopranos’ and ‘Good Wife’ Star Jerry Adler Dead at 96

Jerry Adler, who spent decades behind the curtain on Broadway before reinventing himself as a scene-stealing television actor in his 60s, has died at the age of 96. His family confirmed his passing this week, with Riverside Memorial Chapel in New York handling arrangements.

Adler’s career was one of the most unusual in American entertainment. After nearly fifty years working backstage as a stage manager, director, and producer, he shifted into acting late in life. That second career yielded memorable roles on acclaimed television dramas, most notably as Herman “Hesh” Rabkin, the shrewd music producer and adviser to Tony Soprano, across all six seasons of HBO’s The Sopranos. He later became a fixture on CBS’s The Good Wife as Howard Lyman, the eccentric law partner whose mix of cluelessness and comic timing made him a fan favorite.

From Brooklyn to Broadway

Born in Brooklyn in 1929, Adler grew up immersed in New York theater. He began his professional life not as a performer, but as the person making sure productions stayed on track. Among his earliest credits was serving as stage manager for the original 1956 production of My Fair Lady, one of Broadway’s most celebrated musicals.

Through the 1960s and 1970s, Adler built a reputation as a reliable backstage leader, guiding productions large and small. But despite working with countless actors, he never seriously pursued performing himself—until a casting director suggested he give it a try.

A Late but Lasting Start in Acting

Adler made the leap in the early 1990s, taking on small film and television parts. By then in his early 60s, he quickly discovered he had the presence and timing of a natural character actor. Guest appearances on Northern Exposure, Mad About You, Rescue Me, and Transparent followed, leading to longer arcs that made his name familiar to millions.

The Sopranos proved to be his breakthrough, with Adler’s portrayal of Hesh Rabkin offering both comic relief and sober wisdom amid the violence and dysfunction of Tony Soprano’s world. His later role as Howard Lyman on The Good Wife and its spinoff The Good Fight cemented his reputation as a reliable and endearing presence in prestige television.

Robert King, showrunner of The Good Wife, shared on X that Adler had originally been cast for a single appearance. “The intent was only to have him for one episode of The Good Wife, but he was so funny in a diner scene, yelling ‘I said ice cream, you stupid bitch,’ we had him back for six years of Good Wife and three years of Good Fight,” King wrote. “One of our favorite collaborators.”

Returning to the Stage

Despite his late-life television success, Adler never left the theater behind. He returned to Broadway as a performer in 2000 in Elaine May’s Taller Than a Dwarf and in 2015 in Larry David’s Fish in the Dark. Speaking to Forward at the time, Adler dismissed the idea of slowing down: “I do it because I really enjoy it. I think retirement is a road to nowhere. I wouldn’t know what to do if I were retired. I guess if nobody calls anymore, that’s when I’ll be retired. Meanwhile this is great.”

In 2024, Adler reflected on his life and career in a memoir, Too Funny for Words: Backstage Tales from Broadway, Television and the Movies, which captured his unique journey through both sides of the entertainment industry.

Tributes

Friends and colleagues remembered Adler not only for his body of work, but also for the unlikely timing of his second career. Frank J. Reilly, a close friend, wrote on X: “The great actor, my friend Jerry Adler died today at the age of 96. 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.”

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