Many times the general public associates an actor with a role they



play on a long-running television show, not realizing that often

that thespian had an active career on the stage first. Jerry Orbach

and Sam Waterston on Law and Order, Jason Alexander on

Seinfeld, and Patricia Heaton on Everybody Loves Raymond are a

few of the many actors who first trained for, cut their teeth on, and

professionally performed on the legitimate stage.

The fact is the technique most often taught to American stage

actors - some form of the Stanislavski Method - works very nicely

on both TV and film. Although there are adjustments to be made

going from the stage to television, a well-trained stage actor can

usually make those adjustments fairly quickly.

The biggest changes have to do with the subtlety employed by

those acting for the camera. Stage actors find that physically and

vocally less is more in front of the camera. Additionally, a good film

or television actor has a sound sense of how to use the camera

frame to their best advantage. An actor like Michael Caine is a

master at this.

For someone who has only done television or film, acting on the

stage can be difficult. The stage demands that actors sustain a

character for long periods of time, something the electronic media

does not do. Overall, stage performing also calls for bigger actions

than those needed for television and film. If someone has never

been trained for the theatre, this can be intimidating.

Of course the scariest thing about acting on stage is the fact that

you¡¯re in front of a live audience and if you make a mistake, you

don¡¯t get a Mulligan. Even when a television show is done in front

of a "live audience," there¡¯s less pressure for the actor to be

perfect. If they "go up" (that is, forget their lines), they can make a

joke and get a laugh while "cut" is called. They then get to try the

moment, action or scene again. There is no "cut" in a live stage

performance; there is only "covering" for a flubbed line, a missed

entrance, or a misplaced prop.

Here are a few actors that you¡¯ve become familiar with on

television who first acted on the legitimate stage.

Jerry Orbach

Orbach, who passed away in 2004, was best known as the

wisecracking Detective Lennie Briscoe on Law and Order. As a

young man, he attended the University of Illinois and

Northwestern University where he studied drama. After going to

New York, he continued to study for the stage. He became closely

associated with musicals, creating the role of El Gallo and singing

the well-know opening number "Try to Remember" in the long-

running musical The Fantasticks. He won the Tony in 1969 for his

portrayal of Chuck Baxter in Promises, Promises; he sang the hit

song "I¡¯ll Never Fall in Love Again" in that show. He also played

leads in Chicago (Billy Flynn) and Forty-Second Street (Julian

Marsh). Most Law and Order fans don¡¯t realize that Orbach had a

beautiful, resonate singing voice.

Bebe Neuwirth

Beatrice "Bebe" Neuwirth has recently become a regular on Law

and Order, where she plays the role of Tracey Kibre. However, it

was on the sitcom Cheers that she found fame by playing Lilith

Sternin-Crane - a tough, tense psychiatrist and wife of Frasier

Crane. Neuwirth trained at the Julliard School and first made her

name as a dancer and actor in the national tour of A Chorus Line

(1980), where she played Cassie and Sheila. In 1982, she

appeared on Broadway in Dancin¡¯, directed and choreographed by

the legendary Bob Fosse, and in the musical Little Me. She

cemented her reputation on the Great White Way by playing the

lead in Bob Fosse¡¯s revival of the musical Sweet Charity (1986), for

which she won a Tony. Neuwirth is an amazing, charismatic musical

performer, who commands the stage with her voice and body.

Jason Alexander

Best know as Jerry Seinfeld¡¯s obnoxious best friend George

Costanza in the sitcom Seinfeld, Alexander, who was born Jay

Greenspan in Newark, NJ, is another former Tony winner. While he

was an undergraduate at Boston College, Alexander was cast in

Stephen Soundheim¡¯s Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along. He

won the Best Actor in A Musical Tony for his role in Jerome Robbin¡¯s

Broadway (1989). In the first few episodes of Seinfeld, he wasn¡¯t

quite sure of how to play George Castanza so he imitated Woody

Allen.

Sam Waterston

On television he plays tough, no nonsense D.A. Jack McCoy in Law

and Order (1990), but originally Waterston was best known for his

stage roles. He went to Yale, where he did not study acting, but

did taking acting classes at the American Actors Workshop in Paris.

Waterston?played numerous roles in New York, including Jonathan

in Oh, Dad, Poor, Dad, Mama¡¯s Hung You in the Closet and I¡¯m

Feeling so Sad, Hamlet in Hamlet, and Signoir Benedick of Padua in

Much Ado About Nothing, for which he won the Drama desk award

for Best Actor. Prior to becoming associated with Law and Order,

he was best known for his work in straight plays, both new and

classic. On stage, Waterston perfected an elegant, refined style,

displaying an ability to make precise and subtle acting choices.

Barry Bostwick

On the Michael J. Fox sitcom Spin City, Bostwick played the

dimwitted mayor Randall M. Winston Jr. in 70 episodes. Since that

time, he¡¯s appeared on numerous hit TV shows as a guest star,

including Scrubs, Cold Case and Law and Order. But Bostwick has

deep Broadway roots that include the creation of the role of Danny

Zuko in Grease, for which he received a Best Actor in a Musical

nomination, and the creation of the lead role of Jamie Lockhart in

the musical The Robber Bridegroom, for which he won the Tony.

Bostwick, who also played in numerous straight plays, was known

for his high energy and slapdash style. While performing in his

award winning run as Jamie Lockhart, Bostwick broke his arm

when he fell swinging across the stage on a rope. He proved he

was a trouper though when, after a short recuperative period, he

got back on stage with his arm in a cast and continued to play

Lockhart, rope swing and all.

Patricia Heaton

For 70 episodes, Heaton played Debra Barone, Ray Romano¡¯s wife

on the very popular sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. As a young

woman, she focused on theatre arts at Ohio State University and

then went to New York where she studied with William Esper. She

made her debut in the Broadway gospel musical Don¡¯t Get God

Started, but overall during her career in New York she was

relegated to small roles. With a few acting buddies, she started a

theatre company called Stage Three, which produced new works in

NYC. In 1989 they took their successful production of The

Johnstown Vindicator to Los Angeles, where casting directors saw

and liked Heaton. Slowly her TV career started to take off. But

Heaton has long acknowledged that despite the fact that she

never made it big on Broadway, her stage training has been

instrumental to her success on television.

James Gandolfini

Gandolfini continues his run as the cold-hearted, insecure,

narcissistic Tony Soprano on HBO¡¯s hit series The Sopranos. After

receiving a degree in Communications from Rutgers University,

Gandolfini went on to study acting in the late 1980¡¯s at the

prestigious Actors Studio in New York City. After making his

professional stage debut in Big El's Best Friend, he appeared in

many New York productions. He made his Broadway debut in 1992

as Steve Hubbell in the revival of Tennessee Williams¡¯ A Streetcar

Named Desire, which starred Alex Baldwin and Jessica Lang. Other

New York credits included On the Waterfront, One Day Wonder and

Tarantulas Dancing. The same year he first appeared on

Broadway, he also landed his first screen role, which was in Sidney

Lumet's A Stranger Among Us. Since 1992, he¡¯s appeared in over

20 films. He¡¯s been Tony Soprano in over 70 episodes.

Other actors, who have either made their name or learned

invaluable acting lessons in the theatre before becoming part of

the electronic entertainment industry, include Martin Sheen,

Stockard Channing, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Duvall, Meryl Streep,

and Swoosie Kurtz. These actors have labored hard to learn their

craft on what was the first acting platform available to humankind -

the live stage.

Movies are a little over 100 years old and television is about 75

years old. The formal theatre goes back over 2,500 years! It¡¯s the

true learning and testing ground for acting technique, stamina, and

skill that, once honed, can then be transferred to any other venue.

Go to a Broadway show or a professional theatre near you - you

may catch a performance by someone you¡¯ll see break through on

the tube in the next few years. One night, you¡¯ll be sitting in your

den or living room watching the next big hit drama or sitcom and

say, "Hey, didn¡¯t we see that actor on the stage?" Yeah, you did,

before they were famous. Very cool.