I just heard that actor Jerry Orbach died yesterday of prostate cancer. Damn shame, on so many levels. He was only 69, just a few years older than my mom, and his cancer was apparently discovered too late for treatment.

He was one of our finest character actors, a familiar face that has been appearing in stage, television, and film work for years. He appeared in 42nd Street and Chicago on Broadway, was the voice of Lumiere in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (the film, not the stage musical), and starred in TV’s Law and Order for twelve years. Despite all these roles, however, my first thought on hearing the news was that Baby’s dad from Dirty Dancing was gone.

Don’t laugh — I really like Dirty Dancing. It’s a highly underrated film, a solidly entertaining crowd-pleaser of a sort we don’t see much anymore. Orbach treated the material with dignity, taking a character that could have been one-dimensional and unlikable, and making him sympathetic. Like John Lithgow did in a similar role in Footloose, Orbach found the humanity in the role and made damn sure the audience understood that when the character behaves unreasonably, it’s only because his heart is breaking for his daughter. The film belongs to Patrick Swayze, of course, but Orbach is in many ways more impressive. While Swayze remains the same character at the end that he was to start with, Orbach’s character follows a definite arc: he’s a good man who eventually finds the strength to let his daughter become the woman she’s going to be. It was a great performance in a career filled with them.

I’m going to miss seeing Orbach’s hound-dog features, which could be cruel and imperious or gentle and kind, and everything in-between. The best, most detailed obituary I’ve found is from the New York Times. Be warned, you’ll have to register to see it…