Jerry Adler, who played Hesh Rabkin on The Sopranos, has passed away at 96. A veteran actor with a long career on stage and screen, Adler carved out a special niche in television history as Hesh, Tony Soprano’s old friend, consigliere, and occasional conscience.
In a show rightly hailed as the greatest TV drama of all time, Hesh was never the loudest presence. But Jerry Adler made him unforgettable: funny, sharp, sly, and, when needed, deeply human. Hesh helped make The Sopranos feel lived-in and real.
So in honor of Jerry Adler, here’s a look back at some of Hesh’s best moments, those that showed off his wit, his wisdom, and the dark complexity of a character who often seemed to know more than he said.
Hesh: deeply human (and deeply mobbed up, too)
Like the rest of the cast of The Sopranos’ characters, Hesh is three-dimensional and fully lived-in. There’s a deep backstory that’s alluded to every now and then: the history with Tony’s father and his background in the music industry – which includes both cultural appropriation and exploitation of the Black artists on his label.
And then at the same time, Hesh can be funny and charming and even warm. He enjoys his horse ranch, cultivating the illusion of being a kindly “friend of the family” and Jewish grandfather type.
And yet he’s as mobbed up as the rest of the Sopranos crew, consigliere to a sociopathic murderer and exploiter of human vice and misery.
A hit is a hit
It’s that careful and exquisitely written background that allows scenes like when Hesh bluntly tells Christopher that the new single from Visiting Day (formerly Defiler… they should have kept their original name and sound, says I) is just “not good.”
“A hit is a hit,” he concludes, to Chrissie’s disappointment.
When Moltisanti presses Hesh as to why, the latter drops one of the all-time hilarious Sopranos lines: “For reasons we couldn’t comprehend or codify.”
That’s just chef’s kiss outstanding writing, with brilliant execution from Adler.
Hesh is smart enough to get scared
Because Hesh is smart and because he isn’t violent himself – nor is he a sociopath – he’s self-aware enough to know that his close friends and “family” could very well turn on him if it was in their interest to do so.
With Tony’s gambling habit out of control late in the series, he borrows $200,000 from Hesh on “friendly terms.”
This quickly becomes a Shakespearean lesson (“neither a borrower nor lender be”) when Tony soon resents that he’s expected to payback his friend.
Which causes Hesh to reasonably fret himself that he’s the one who might get some payback… of the getting whacked kind.
This too shall pass
This is where Hesh will fool us as viewers, the way he can weave Biblical and grandfatherly wisdom into his palavers with Tony and the other guys from the North Jersey crew.
“This too shall pass.”
That’s something I often heard from my Jewish parents growing up on Long Island.
Hesh reminds me quite a lot of my Grandpa Jay, in fact, a wildly charismatic guy who owned a bar in midtown Manhattan that found celebrities such as Joe Namath and Mickey Mantle dropping by during the Mad Men mid-century era.
But Hesh’s grandfather bit is an act. He’s as corrupt as Tony is, really, but just more careful.
More behind the scenes.
Hesh can be hilarious
Like so much of what makes The Sopranos surprisingly and consistently funny is that Hesh never really tries to be funny.
Example: when Big Pussy and Hesh take the schmuck forced into being the frontman for a healthcare system scam out for “a little walk” and “just happen” to stop to chat on a bridge.
While Hesh reasonably checks in on the guy’s wellbeing and talks him through his bleak options.
“Your debt and the feelings surrounding it are the source of all your problems,” he tells him, playing both loan shark and armchair psychiatrist at the same time.
“Hey, you want to go walk on the rocks?” Hesh then casually drops in, and the dark comedy lies in the fact that the dude knows the implicit threat of violence buried underneath the question.
Hesh as consigliere
Hesh is a strong consigliere to Tony and even a stabilizing influence in his life. However, he’s only human and it’s hilarious to see him trying not to fall asleep while Tony rambles over a giant scotch.
“You got some kind of complex… you know sleep always helps,” Hesh tells him out of desperate hope that his boss will let him hit the sack in peace.
Hesh and The Sopranos legacy
Hesh added texture, humor, and an outsider’s perspective to the world of The Sopranos.
In a series that Pop Thruster has named the best TV show ever, Jerry Adler’s Hesh proved that even secondary characters could leave an indelible mark.