Jerry Orbach’s children furious at step-mom

On December 28, 2004, actor Jerry Orbach died.  He is most famous for his role as Detective Lennie Briscoe on the television series Law and Order.

According to Gina Serpe, Orbach Kin Wants More Order to Will, eonline.com, August 11, 2008, the following issues have arisen in the administration of his estate:

• Jerry’s estate is valued at approximately $10 million.
• Jerry left his entire estate to his wife, Elaine Cancilla-Orbach.  They were married in 1979.
• Elaine is not the mother of Jerry’s children.
• Chris Orbach, Jerry’s son, believes that Elaine manipulated Jerry to omit Chris and his brother (Tony) from Jerry’s will.
• Chris is also complaining that Jerry’s eyes were donated to the Eye Bank Associate of America.
• Elaine states that she may remove Chris from her will because of his behavior which included writing her a letter calling her “a double-dealing, lying, scheming, miserable fool.”

Special thanks to Sara Hudman (J.D. 2008, Texas Tech University School of Law) for bringing this development to my attention.