Lennie Briscoe

Det. Lennie Briscoe
Law & Order character
First appearance	"Point of View" (L&O) "The Abominable Showman" (TBJ) "
Last appearance	"C.O.D." (L&O) "41 Shots" (TBJ) "
Portrayed by	Jerry Orbach
Time on show	1992–2004 (Law & Order) 1996-1999 (HLOTS) 1998 (Exiled: A Law & Order Movie) 1999–2000 (SVU) 2005 (Trial by Jury)
Seasons	3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 (L&O) 1 (TBJ)
Credited appearances	273 episodes (L&O) 3 episodes (HLOTS) 3 episodes (SVU) 1 episode (CI) 2 episodes (TBJ) 282 episodes (total)
Preceded by	Phil Cerreta (L&O)
Succeeded by	Joe Fontana (L&O) Chris Ravell (TBJ)
Information
Family	Julia Briscoe (daughter) Cathy Briscoe (daughter; deceased) Unnamed brother Ken Briscoe (nephew) At least two unnamed grandchildren Harry (uncle; deceased) Unnamed ex-wives

Leonard W. "Lennie" Briscoe is a fictional character on NBC's long-running police procedural and legal drama television series Law & Order. He was featured on the show for 12 seasons, from 1992 to 2004. He was created by Walon Green and René Balcer, and was portrayed by Jerry Orbach. He also appeared in three Law & Order spin-offs, and was part of the original cast of Law & Order: Trial by Jury, appearing in only the first two episodes due to Orbach's death. He appears in 282 episodes (273 episodes of Law & Order, two episodes of Law & Order: Trial by Jury, one episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, three episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and three episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street) and in the movie Exiled.

Law & Order universe

Lennie Briscoe is introduced in the 1992 episode "Point of View" as the new senior detective in the New York City Police Department's 27th Detective Squad in the 27th Police Precinct's Station House.^[1] His boss during his first season on the show is Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek); a year later, Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson) takes over the 27th Squad. He was previously assigned as a detective in the 116th Det. Squad in Queens.^[2]

Briscoe joins the squad after Det. Mike Logan's (Chris Noth) partner, Sgt. Phil Cerreta (Paul Sorvino), is shot by a black market arms dealer and transfers to a desk job in another precinct.

After Logan is transferred to Staten Island in 1995,^[3] Det. Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) becomes Briscoe's partner.^[4] Four years later, Curtis goes into early retirement to take care of his multiple sclerosis–stricken wife,^[5] and he is replaced by Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin) in 1999.^[6]

Character biography

Lennie Briscoe grew up in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan.^[7] He had a brother.^[8] As a child, he attended P.S. 21, as his father had before him.^[9] A veteran of two failed marriages, Briscoe has two daughters by his first wife, the elder Julia and the younger Cathy, and a nephew, Det. Ken Briscoe (played by Orbach's son, Chris). Cathy was born on June 23, 1971 and was murdered on March 4, 1998.^[10] He mentions being a grandfather and Cathy is shown to have no children so they must be Julia's. By 2002, he had at least two grandchildren.^[11] He once walked into a bar and found his then wife kissing a man named Joe who lived down the street from them. He punched Joe several times and later claimed that he would have shot him if he had had his gun on him at the time.^[12] Both of his marriages lasted for less than eleven years.^[13]

His first assignment in the NYPD was at the 29th Precinct.^[14] He used to work in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. He always wanted to own a bar.^[15] When he was young, he considered studying at Brooklyn Law School.^[16] Briscoe began working in the NYPD homicide department in 1981.^[17] He was an alcoholic, although in recovery. Many references are made to his former problems, both in his personal and work life because of his alcoholism. He often makes references to being a "friend of Bill W." which is a reference to his having attended Alcoholics Anonymous. His family is fairly dysfunctional, due to his alcoholism, he was often absent from his daughters' lives, and they have distant, fractious relationships with him as adults. Briscoe blames himself, especially when Cathy, a methamphetamine addict, is murdered by a drug dealer after she testifies against the dealer in court.^[18] However, he finds closure when the drug dealer dies from a heroin overdose.^[19] It is implied (although never explicitly stated) that Briscoe considered having the dealer killed. An old snitch of Briscoe's had offered to kill the dealer if Briscoe could get his charges reduced. Briscoe is later seen talking to the arresting officer about the snitch, but it is never confirmed if Briscoe did him the favor.^[10]

In the 1996 episode "Aftershock", after witnessing an execution from a case that he helped investigate, Briscoe falls off the wagon with disastrous results; A.D.A. Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennessy) is struck and killed by a drunk driver while driving him home from a bar.^[20] The experience shakes him deeply, and he remains sober for the rest of his life.

Briscoe was raised Catholic, but is Jewish on his father's side and occasionally attends Jewish services as a courtesy to his first wife.^[21] His father served in the United States Army during World War II and helped to liberate a Nazi concentration camp in German occupied Poland.^[22] He suffered from Alzheimer's and had died by 1994.^[23] Lennie did not get along with his father and once described him as a "schmuck". Nevertheless, he took several days off when he died.^[24] In 1997, his mother was living in Florida.^[25] She was still alive in 2003.^[26] In 2002, his daughter Julia was likewise living in Florida.^[27] During the Prohibition in the 1920s, his grandfather brewed gin in his bathtub and sold it door to door in milk bottles.^[28]

Though not actually Jewish according to the traditional definition, Briscoe is sometimes the target of antisemitism from criminals and even some of his own colleagues. Briscoe also develops a friendship with one of the few featured Jewish police officers during his tenure, John Munch (Richard Belzer), despite Munch's initial resentment when he discovers Briscoe had slept with his first wife Gwen Munch.^[29][30][31]

He voted for Al Gore in the 2000 U.S. presidential election.^[32] He supported the Iraq War.^[33]

Character highlights

Briscoe is one of many characters on the show to have served in the military; he was at one point a corporal in the United States Army. On several occasions he has referred to his service in the Vietnam War. After leaving the Army, Briscoe joined the NYPD in the 29th Precinct in Manhattan and walked a beat there with stops at the 31st and 33rd Precincts, also in Manhattan, and the 110th and 116th Precincts in Queens, at some point reaching the rank of detective. It is also revealed in the 1999 episode "Marathon", that he spent three years in the Anti-Crime Unit. Briscoe's detective shield number is 8220.

Briscoe typically has a wise-crack or joke about the victim or circumstances of death at the close of the opening scene, with the joke usually exhibiting a very deadpan delivery while at the same time being highly "on target." He likes music, but mostly music that was popular in his youth. In Season 9, Curtis chides his musical taste for stopping with Bobby Darin. Briscoe used to read Langston Hughes back when he was a beatnik "for about five minutes" and "it used to work pretty good on Jewish girls."^[34]

Many of Briscoe's former partners and colleagues outside the series (offscreen before Briscoe joined the 27th Precinct) have been or ended up becoming corrupt. In the 1993 episode "Jurisdiction", Lieutenant Brian Torelli (Dan Hedaya) forced a confession from a mentally challenged man; at the end of the episode Briscoe is present when Internal Affairs arrests Torelli for suborning perjury and obstruction of justice.

In the 1994 episode "Kids", the son of police detective Ted Parker, a former colleague of Briscoe, is arrested for shooting another teenager. Parker and Briscoe have a private conversation where Parker uses hypothetics to virtually confess to Briscoe that his son only shot in self-defense. At the end of the episode, Parker tacitly acknowledges to Briscoe that he used his contacts in his old precinct to engineer the shooting death of a key prosecution witness in his son's case (resulting in a mistrial).

Another of Briscoe's former partners, Det. John Flynn (Kevin Conway), falsely implicates him in the 1996 episode "Corruption" for taking seized drugs from the 116th Precinct evidence room (given to him by Flynn) during their stint there several years before. Flynn makes this allegation partly to throw off the Hellman Commission, which had been convened to investigate police corruption, including the questionable shooting death of a suspect by Flynn himself at the start of the episode, and partly as revenge against Curtis, who refused to falsely defend Flynn. Briscoe, however, has an alibi—he was having an affair with Officer Betty Abrams (Caroline Kava), a married woman. Against Briscoe's wishes, Abrams testifies before the commission to exonerate him. Because of the affair, however, the commissioners question her credibility.^[2] Although Briscoe is ultimately cleared, defense attorneys exploit the allegations for the rest of his career.^{[18][35][10][36]}

There are moments in Briscoe's career where his decisions are controversial. In the episode "Stalker", a stalker accused of murdering a woman could have gone free because the police concluded that the victim had earlier lied to the police about previously being attacked by the stalker, thereby undermining the victim's credibility. However, after the victim is found murdered, Briscoe goes to EADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) and tells him that he now believes that the victim did not lie to the police of the stalker's earlier attacks and that he is willing to take the stand and state that the original police report was incorrect. Curtis would be called by the defense to testify that he thought the original police report was correct. At the end of the episode, the stalker is found guilty; outside the courtroom, Curtis and Briscoe reconcile.

Shortly after Green is assigned as his partner, he and Briscoe nearly come to blows during a particularly difficult investigation of a robbery-homicide. Their primary suspect confesses as he is being arrested, but because Briscoe is the only officer within earshot, Green, Van Buren, and McCoy are placed in a difficult position with regard to the confession. Again, Briscoe is eventually vindicated, and he and Green work to rebuild their professional rapport and what eventually ends up as a close friendship.^[37]

Briscoe retires from the NYPD in 2004.^[38] His successor in the 27th Precinct Detective Squad is Det. Joe Fontana (Dennis Farina), whose stint in the 27th Precinct would be far shorter than Briscoe's.

Briscoe died at some point between 2004 and 2005 (Orbach himself died on December 28, 2004). Although not addressed directly in the main series until 2008, his death was implied in 2005 and confirmed in 2007 in Criminal Intent (see "Death" section below).

Briscoe's revolver

His duty weapon is a Smith & Wesson Model 36 .38 Special, snub-nosed revolver. He carries the Model 36 as his sidearm since he was a long serving veteran police officer with the NYPD having been a "Member Of the Service" (MOS) prior to 1986. In 1986 the department started issuing Smith & Wesson Model 64 .38 Special revolvers to MOS. All NYPD officers who were hired after 1986 had to carry stainless steel finished revolvers. After 1992 the NYPD started issuing 9mm semiautomatic pistols (certain authorized S&W, Glock, and SIG Sauer 9mm pistols) to their officers.

The Model 36 was a very popular revolver with NYPD detectives and plainclothes officers because it is reliable and easy to conceal, and the .38 Special cartridge has a good reputation among police officers for reliability. It is carried by several other characters on Law & Order, including Max Greevey, Donald Cragen, Mike Logan, Phil Cerreta, and Anita Van Buren

In season 7, episode 5, Briscoe is shown on a firing range using a Smith and wesson model 5946 pistol. He explains to another officer that he is being forced to switch from his revolver to a semi-automatic pistol, but continues to carry his S&W 36 for the rest of his time on the series.

Spin-offs

On the first season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Briscoe makes three guest appearances assisting his old boss, Don Cragen (Dann Florek). Briscoe also makes a guest appearance in the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Poison", in which he assists the Major Case Squad on a similar case. He also appeared in three episodes on Homicide: Life on the Street.

Soon after his retirement, Briscoe joins Law & Order: Trial by Jury, having accepted an appointment as an investigator in the office of New York County District Attorney Arthur Branch (Fred Thompson), with partner Inv. Hector Salazar (Kirk Acevedo). He only appears in the first two episodes of this series - "The Abominable Showman" and "41 Shots".

Appearances

• Homicide: Life on the Street
  • Season Four
    • Episode 12: "For God and Country"
  • Season Six
    • Episode 5: "Baby, It's You"
  • Season Seven
    • Episode 15: "Sideshow"
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
  • Season One
    • Episode 3: "Or Just Look Like One"
    • Episode 4: "Hysteria"
    • Episode 15: "Entitled"
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent
  • Season One
    • Episode 7: "Poison"

Death

In 2005, the Briscoe character was written out after the second episode of Trial By Jury coinciding with Orbach's death on December 28, 2004 from prostate cancer. The character's departure from the show was originally to be in the episode "Baby Boom" where members of the DA's Office attend a memorial service for him after dying from an illness. This scene was in fact filmed but never actually made it into the episode before its airing, leaving Briscoe's whereabouts after his last appearance in the second episode unknown.

In the 2005 Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Diamond Dogs" (Chris Noth's first episode as a regular cast member), Logan, questioning a burglar's fence in a pool hall, is clearly referring to Briscoe when he says that a former partner was a "wizard with the stick".^[39] In the 2007 Criminal Intent episode "Renewal", Logan says that Briscoe has died but he still sees him alive in his dreams.^[40]

In 2008, Green explains he returned to gambling briefly after Briscoe died.^[41] In a 2008 episode of Criminal Intent, a Catholic priest who was a friend of Briscoe approaches Logan after a prisoner's deathbed confession to a 16-year-old double murder in The Bronx.^[42]

In the 2009 Law & Order episode "Fed", Briscoe's old partner Rey Curtis returns to New York to bury his deceased wife Deborah, who had finally succumbed to MS, next to her parents. Anita Van Buren was able to come to the tail end of Deborah's funeral and meet with Curtis where Curtis revealed that he had spoken with Lennie Briscoe just before his death and that Lennie was his old wisecracking self right up to the end.

Reception

• Lennie Briscoe was voted the 30th greatest television show character of all time by Bravo TV.^[43]
• Lennie Briscoe was Law & Order's third greatest detective on the Hallmark Channel poll in 2010, beaten only by Special Victims Unit Detective Olivia Benson, who came in second, and Criminal Intent Detective Robert Goren, who won the poll.
• Lennie Briscoe was ranked #9 on Sleuth Channel's poll of America's Top Sleuths between Sherlock Holmes at #10 and Gil Grissom of CSI at #8.^[44]
• Lennie Briscoe was named one of TV's Smartest Detectives by AOL TV.^[45]
• Lennie Briscoe was ranked 15th on TV Guide's list of the 25 greatest TV detectives.^[46]

References