HOLLYWOOD actor and The Sopranos star Jerry Adler has died aged 96.
The veteran actor's death was announced today by his loved ones and confirmed by his friend Frank J. Reilly.
Paying touching tributes, Frank J. Reilly 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, which he had from many of his guest appearances. Not bad for a guy who didn't start acting until he was 65."
Adler didn't become an actor until he was in his early 60s.
The Brooklyn native played Herman "Hesh" Rabkin, consigliere to James Gandolfini's mob boss Tony, on HBO's The Sopranos.
He was the cousin of famed acting teacher Stella Adler and began his career on Broadway, New York Post reports.
He appeared onscreen for the first time on a 1991 episode of the Gary David Goldberg sitcom Brooklyn Bridge on CBS, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Adler was also the stage manager on the original production of the legendary play My Fair Lady.
He later appeared in several major films and gained popularity.
These include Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery and Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York.
But the legacy was defined after he played Herman "Hesh" Rabkin in the HBO series The Sopranos.
In a 2017 interview, he said: "You spend your whole career backstage.
"Nobody knows who you are or even knows your name. They don't know anything about you.
And then you do a television show and suddenly you're a celebrity and everyone knows your face. It's so weird."
Adler is survived by his wife, the psychologist Joan Laxman, to whom he has been married since 1994.
It comes after The Sopranos actor Charley Scalies died aged 84 after a battle with Alzheimer's.
Charley, who also starred in The Wire, passed away at a Pennsylvania nursing home earlier this year, his family has revealed.
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