Jerry Orbach, born October 20, 1935, in the Bronx, New York, was an American actor and singer whose career spanned stage, television, and animation. While he is not a Japanese anime voice actor in the traditional sense, he made a significant contribution to Western animation, which is often grouped under the broader "anime" umbrella in some international contexts. His most prominent role in this field is Captain Zachary Foxx in the American animated space Western series The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, which aired in 1986. In this series, running for 65 episodes, Orbach voiced the leader of an elite team of peacekeepers in a science fiction setting, a character known for his by-the-book personality, a cybernetic arm cannon, and the tragic backstory of his wife trapped in a psychic coma.

Before his foray into animation, Orbach had already established himself as a major figure on Broadway, winning a Tony Award for his performance in Promises, Promises and originating the role of El Gallo in the long-running off-Broadway hit The Fantasticks. He also gained fame later in his career for his live-action role as Detective Lennie Briscoe on the long-running television series Law & Order. His voice acting career, however, extended beyond Galaxy Rangers. He is perhaps best known to global audiences as the voice of Lumière, the charismatic candelabra, in Disney's 1991 animated classic Beauty and the Beast. He reprised this role for several direct-to-video sequels including Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas and Belle's Magical World, as well as the animated series House of Mouse. Other notable animation voice roles include the villain Sa'luk in Aladdin and the King of Thieves and appearances in the short film Mickey's PhilharMagic.

For his work in animation, Orbach received recognition from the industry. In 1998, he was nominated for an Annie Award for Best Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Feature Production for his role in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas. His career was marked by a versatility that moved seamlessly from musical theater to gritty television dramas to family-friendly animated features, with The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers standing as a key example of his work within the action-oriented space fantasy genre of Western animation.