Elaine Cancilla Orbach Dies at 69
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Elaine Cancilla Orbach, a former Broadway actress and the widow of actor Jerry Orbach, has died of pneumonia at the age of 69.
After beginning a career in ballet, she gravitated to the stage and landed a role in the musical Fiorello! at age 19. Her many other stage credits included How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Here’s Love!, Flora, the Red Menace, Baker Street, Sweet Charity, South Pacific and The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
She met Orbach when they both worked on the original Broadway production of Chicago and got married while they were co-starring in a national tour of Neil Simon’s Chapter Two. She recently completed a memoir of her marriage, Remember How I Love You: Ordinary Moments in an Extraordinary Marriage, with co-author Ken Bloom. It will be published this fall.
She is survived by her sister, Rita Hubbard, and brother Robert Cancilla, along with numerous nieces and nephews.
