NEW YORK - Jerry Orbach had a gift for charming audiences his entire career - first as a song-and-dance man who starred in musicals on and off Broadway, then for 12 years as a sharp-tongued cop on TV's "Law & Order."

Along the way, he made films as varied as the gritty crime drama "Prince of the City" and the smash romance "Dirty Dancing."

Orbach, who died of prostate cancer Tuesday in Manhattan, was beginning another chapter at age 69: He had taken his signature role as Detective Lennie Briscoe to NBC's upcoming spinoff "Law & Order: Trial By Jury."

With his hangdog puss and loose-limbed gait, Orbach was unmatched at playing the street-smart tough guy. A quintessential New Yorker, he personified his city's well-worn but implacable edge, embodying the Big Apple like few other actors.

Orbach's longtime "Law & Order" co-star, S. Epatha Merkerson, who plays Lt. Van Buren, remembered him as "as a real good guy who knew everything and everybody. He had a real lust for life and the work he did, and it permeated throughout the set."

Orbach had announced in early December that he had prostate cancer. His manager said at the time that he had been receiving treatment since spring, but declined to disclose any particulars about the seriousness of his condition.

Orbach is expected to appear in early "Trial By Jury" episodes when the show premieres in March.

Orbach started his career as a hoofer who also could carry a tune. Beginning in the 1960s, he starred on Broadway in hit musicals including "Carnival," "Promises, Promises" (for which he won a Tony Award), "42nd Street" and "Chicago."

Lights on Broadway marquees were expected to be dimmed for one minute at curtain time Wednesday night in Orbach's memory.

Among his film appearances was the animated "Beauty and the Beast," in which he voiced the role of the candlestick Lumiere, singing "Be Our Guest."

It was his cop role in the 1981 drama "Prince of the City" that inspired his "Law & Order" character.

In "Chicago," Orbach played money-loving lawyer Billy Flynn, the role Richard Gere inherited in the 2002 film. It was also in that show that he met dancer Elaine Cancilla, whom he married in 1979.

She survives him, as well as sons Chris and Tony from his first marriage.

"People adored him," said Merkerson.

She recalled sharing lunch one day with Orbach and co-star Benjamin Bratt, when several fans approached the table. "Jerry stopped eating to talk to them. But after a while, I whispered to him, `Your food is getting cold.'

"`Kid,' he replied with a big smile, 'these are the people that keep us going!'"