Television RIP Hesh

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Jerry Adler, ‘Sopranos’ star and New York native, dead at 96


Jerry Adler, the veteran actor who famously starred in The Sopranos, died Saturday, his family announced. He was 96.

Adler was born in Brooklyn and died surrounded by loved ones in New York City. His death announcement stated proudly, “Jerry was a resident of New York, New York.”

He famously played the Jewish consigliere “Herman ‘Hesh’ Rabkin” on The Sopranos, appearing in 28 episodes across all six seasons.
 
One of the best episodes of the entire series, titled Chasing It, features the last appearance of Hesh on the show.

Tony drags his feet paying back the 250k loan he got from Hesh, and instead mocks him and accuses him of muliltiple "jew/money" stereotypes after hesh dares to mention reimbursement

Eventually, he pays hesh back but only after his wife dies in her sleep. Hesh accepts the money and doesn't say a thing until Tony takes the hint and leaves.

Tony is easy to root for, Gandolfini gives texture and warmth to the irredeemable person Tony is.

Its my favorite acting performance of all time, but that episode is legit hard to watch and enjoy due to how thoroughly repugnant Tony has become by that point.
Hesh was a great side character.
RIP Jerry

Edit: Shout out to the season 1 episode
"A Hit is a Hit"




Very much a stand alone episode that seems out of place as many of the season 1 episodes did.
 
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One of the best episodes of the entire series, titled Chasing It, features the last appearance of Hesh on the show.

Tony drags his feet paying back the 250k loan he got from Hesh, and instead mocks him and accuses him of muliltiple "jew/money" stereotypes after hesh dares to mention reimbursement

Eventually, he pays hesh back but only after his wife dies in her sleep. Hesh accepts the money and doesn't say a thing until Tony takes the hint and leaves.

Tony is easy to root for, Gandolfini gives texture and warmth to the irredeemable person Tony is.

Its my favorite acting performance of all time, but that episode is legit hard to watch and enjoy due to how thoroughly repugnant Tony has become by that point.
Hesh was a great side character.
RIP Jerry

Edit: Shout out to the season 1 episode
"A Hit is a Hit"




Very much a stand alone episode that seems out of place as many of the season 1 episodes did.

I hated that episode, if I wanted a history lesson I’d watch ancient aliens 😂
 
One of the best episodes of the entire series, titled Chasing It, features the last appearance of Hesh on the show.

Tony drags his feet paying back the 250k loan he got from Hesh, and instead mocks him and accuses him of muliltiple "jew/money" stereotypes after hesh dares to mention reimbursement

Eventually, he pays hesh back but only after his wife dies in her sleep. Hesh accepts the money and doesn't say a thing until Tony takes the hint and leaves.

Tony is easy to root for, Gandolfini gives texture and warmth to the irredeemable person Tony is.

Its my favorite acting performance of all time, but that episode is legit hard to watch and enjoy due to how thoroughly repugnant Tony has become by that point.
Hesh was a great side character.
RIP Jerry

Edit: Shout out to the season 1 episode
"A Hit is a Hit"




Very much a stand alone episode that seems out of place as many of the season 1 episodes did.



The scene when Tony finally gives him the money and Hesh looks at the money and probably realizes what mattered so much to him is completely meaningless was powerful
 
The scene when Tony finally gives him the money and Hesh looks at the money and probably realizes what mattered so much to him is completely meaningless was powerful
I almost always skip the season 6 B. When just having it on for background noise.

Some of those episodes are so bleak I'll just skip them and start back at ep 1.

That one is a hard watch for me in particular
 
I hated that episode, if I wanted a history lesson I’d watch ancient aliens 😂
Even though it's a weak episode especially when compared to the entire series.

But rather was my introduction to the whole "Jewish producers ripped off the black kids with the talent and kept the lion share of the proceeds" thing that was a common practice.

Even the weak episodes are fun, mostly bc of how out of place they seem compared to the rest of the series and the direction they eventually settled into
 
I almost always skip the season 6 B. When just having it on for background noise.

Some of those episodes are so bleak I'll just skip them and start back at ep 1.

That one is a hard watch for me in particular

Yeah, the cancer ones aren't joyful to watch either or Uncle Jun's mind starting to go. Tony saying to Junior "I mean, don't you love me?" and you see tears forming in Junior's eyes.

They rode that show out perfectly, everything getting darker and nastier. People praise the most basic character development in shows all the time but how they developed the characters in this was outstanding. Lots of people that loved Tony in the first seasons hated Tony at the end.
 
Yeah, the cancer ones aren't joyful to watch either or Uncle Jun's mind starting to go. Tony saying to Junior "I mean, don't you love me?" and you see tears forming in Junior's eyes.

They rode that show out perfectly, everything getting darker and nastier. People praise the most basic character development in shows all the time but how they developed the characters in this was outstanding. Lots of people that loved Tony in the first seasons hated Tony at the end.
That's how good JG was, imo. Every anti hero that came after all tried to capture that same combo of charisma and venom, some did better than others
But no one compares imo. It's the best portrayal by an actor of all time.

DDL moves into a cabin for a year to make one movie. Whoop de doo. James had to nail the Tony character for like 86 hrs total or some shit, and he did it without the eccentricities these method ctors go overboard with lol
 
Somehow I always remembered when Tony came to bring the 3K vig for the week.
And Hesh just threw the envelope on the couch as if it was nothing, when Tony left.
 
How long you've known me; she's a little pale for my taste

Fav hesch adjacent line was when dealing with Junior as the new boss

JR: God forbid i get in the way of someone earning...let's call it 3 on the back taxes

Hesch: 250

JR: .. what I'd tell ya, hold on to your cock when you negotiate with these desert people...250.
 
My favorite episode with him. Also loved the second song that Chris is listening to. "That's a hit". I remember trying to look it up back in the day, I assumed it was already a hit song I simply hadn't heard before the episode, but then I couldn't find anything about it from a simple search of the chorus's lyrics. I had to dig deep into the TV's episode track listing to find it. And even then, there was only a really crappy quality upload at the time on YouTube of it. I was really surprised such a great sound was so obscure.


Easy to find it all these years later.
 
I thought this was about M.C. Chris at first as his character in Sealab 2021 was called Hesh.
 
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