Jerry Adler

Jerome Elliott Adler was born on February 4, 1929, in Brooklyn, New York, to Philip Adler (1905–1990) and Pauline "Polly" Goldberg (1906–2000), both Jewish. His father managed dozens of Broadway and touring productions from the 1930s through the 1960s, serving as general manager of the Group Theatre collective and overseeing productions for Herman Levin and Alexander H. Cohen. Adler's great-uncle was Yiddish theater actor Jacob Pavlovich Adler, making Stella and Luther Adler his cousins. He grew up in a Yiddish-speaking, observant Jewish household. Adler attended Samuel J. Tilden High School, where he served as president of the Dramatic Club, and later studied at Syracuse University. He died on August 23, 2025, at his Manhattan home at the age of 96.

Shaped by his family's deep ties to the theater, Adler entered the industry as a stage manager in 1950, working on productions including Of Thee I Sing and My Fair Lady. He subsequently became a production supervisor on a range of shows, among them The Apple Tree, Black Comedy/White Lies, Dear World, Coco, 6 Rms Riv Vu, Annie, and I Remember Mama. His directing career began with the 1974 Sammy Cahn revue Words and Music. He went on to direct the 1976 revival of My Fair Lady, which earned him a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Director of a Musical, as well as the 1976 play Checking Out and a 1976 revival of Hellzapoppin starring Jerry Lewis. His directing credits also include Richard Rodgers' final musical, I Remember Mama, and the 1981 musical The Little Prince and the Aviator. Additional theater credits include Drat! The Cat!

Adler's acting career began in 1991 with the television series Brooklyn Bridge, followed the next year by a role in the film The Public Eye. He became widely recognized for playing Herman "Hesh" Rabkin, an associate of the DiMeo crime family, on David Chase's HBO drama The Sopranos, a role he held from 1999 to 2007. Chase had previously worked with Adler on Northern Exposure, where Adler played Alan Schulman, a rabbi appearing in visions to the character Joel Fleischman. Adler was also recognized for his recurring role as lawyer Howard Lyman on The Good Wife and its spin-off The Good Fight. Among his other television roles were building maintenance man Mr. Wicker on Mad About You, Sam Stewart on Raising Dad, Lt. Al Teischler on Hudson Street, Jules Ziegler in an episode of The West Wing, Fire Chief Sidney Feinberg in the fourth season of Rescue Me, Eddie's father Al in seasons three and four of 'Til Death, Moshe Pfefferman on the Amazon series Transparent from 2017 to 2019, Saul Horowitz on Broad City in 2019, and Hillston on Living with Yourself alongside Paul Rudd in 2019.

His film work includes Manhattan Murder Mystery, In Her Shoes, Prime, and a starring role as Joseph Mendelsohn in the 2014 film A Most Violent Year, opposite Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac. On Broadway, Adler appeared in productions from 2000 to 2015, with credits including Taller Than a Dwarf and Larry David's Fish in the Dark. In 2024, he published a memoir titled Too Funny for Words: Backstage Tales from Broadway, Television and the Movies.