Lennie Briscoe - Character Biography

Character Biography

Lennie was born January 2, 1940. He grew up in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan. 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). He mentions being a grandfather and Cathy is shown to have no children so they must be Julia's. Briscoe 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. However, he finds closure when the drug dealer dies from a heroin overdose. 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.

In the 1996 episode "Aftershock", after witnessing an execution from a case 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. 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. It was revealed that his father suffered from Alzheimer's. 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 Gwen Munch, one of Munch's ex-wives.