Late “Law & Order” actor Jerry Orbach is playing a starring role in a new legal drama — even though he died 10 years ago.
The actor’s friend and former accountant is refusing to relinquish control over a Chase bank account belonging to Orbach’s company, Mingoya Productions, according to a new Manhattan lawsuit against the Westchester bean counter.
Chase claims Patricia M. Black, of Pleasantville, was ousted as executor of the estate of Orbach’s second wife, Elaine, a Broadway actress who died five years after her husband in 2009.
The new executor, Elanie’s sister Rita Hubbard, contacted the bank last October to inform them Black must be cut off from the account. But in court papers Chase says Black has “failed and refused to respond” to phone calls and letters regarding the dispute.
Orbach added Black as a signatory to the account in 2003, a year before he died of cancer at age 69.
Hubbard’s attorney, Steven Feinstein, said he does not know how much money is in the account, which was opened in 1978 at Chase predecessor Chemical Bank, because he has been denied access by the bank.
He has told Chase, according to the suit, that Elaine’s estate is the 100 percent owner of Mingoya Productions and thus the account.
But the bank fears it will be sued if it turns over the money to the wrong person, according to court papers.
Chase wants the court to determine who is the rightful owner of the account.
Elaine inherited her hubby’s $10 million fortune, and when she died it was passed on to his kids.
Orbach played wise-cracking Detective Lennie Briscoe in “Law & Order” for 12 years, pulling in six-figure pay per episode. He also was known as the disapproving dad in the 1987 hit “Dirty Dancing.”
Feinstein doesn’t believe Black has withdrawn any funds. Black’s attorney could not be reached for comment.