Sam Waterston

Sam Waterston as A.D.A. Jack McCoy in "Law & Order." Waterston joined the cast in 1994, the show's fifth season, and has been a cast member ever since. The show is finishing its 20th season on the air.

Born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1940, the Tony Award-winning actor made his film debut in 1965's "The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean." His early credits include "Who Killed Mary What's 'Er Name?," "Savages," and TV versions of "The Glass Menagerie" (with Katharine Hepburn) and "Much Ado About Nothing." A 1973 Tony winner for the Public Theatre's production of "Much Ado," he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for "The Great Gatsby" (1974), and starred in the 1980 BBC miniseries, "Oppenheimer."

Starring with James Brolin and O.J. Simpson in "Capricorn One" (1978), Waterston played an American astronaut forced into faking a manned landing on Mars, only be hunted down by government assassins. Waterston also played a villainous land baron in "Heaven's Gate."

Laughter overwhelms Waterston, Gilda Radner and Mike Nichols, after the Broadway opening of "Lunch Hour," November 13, 1980 in New York. Waterston's other Broadway credits include "A Walk in the Woods," "Benefactors," "Hamlet," "A Doll's House," "The Trial of the Catonsville Nine," "Indians," and "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad."

In the 1984 drama "The Killing Fields," Waterson played New York Times correspondent Sidney Schanberg whose partner in Cambodia, photographer and translator Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor), is left behind by the evacuation of foreigners as Phnom Penh falls to the Khmer Rouge. Schanberg was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, and Dr. Ngor — a Cambodian refugee himself — won for Best Supporting Actor.

Sam Waterston as Abraham Lincoln and James Gammon as Gen. Ulysses S. Grant appeared on Broadway in a revival of Robert E. Sherwood's "Abe Lincoln in Illinois." Waterston (who also played Lincoln in an acclaimed 1988 TV movie) was nominated for a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for his performance in 1994.

Pictured is the Season 5 cast of "Law & Order," from left to right: S. Epatha Merkerson as Lt. Anita Van Buren, Chris Noth as Detective Mike Logan, Sam Waterston as Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy, Jerry Orbach as Detective Lennie Briscoe, and Jill Hennessy as A.D.A. Claire Kincaid.

Sam Waterston as A.D.A. Jack McCoy in "Law & Order"'s seventh season, in 1996. Waterston has been nominated three times for an Emmy for playing McCoy, and had previously been nominated three times for the series "I'll Fly Away." He won an Emmy in 1996 for the series "Lost Civilizations."

Actor Sam Waterston from television's "Law & Order" holds up his Screen Actors Guild Award for "Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series" during the Fifth Annual Screen Actors Guild Award show at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Sunday, March 7, 1999.

Pictured left to right are Sam Waterston as Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy, Elisabeth Rohm as Serena Southerlyn, and Fred Dalton Thompson as D.A. Arthur Branch in an image for Season 13 of "Law & Order."

Sam Waterston as A.D.A Jack McCoy in "Law & Order," in 2006.

Sam Waterston appeared with Naomi Watts, Kate Hudson and Thomas Lennon in "Le Divorce" (2003), the Merchant-Ivory adaptation of Diane Johnson's romantic novel.

"Le Divorce" cast member Leslie Caron is embraced by Sam Waterston at the premiere of the film in Los Angeles, Tuesday, July 29, 2003.

At Cooper Union's Great Hall in New York on May 5, 2004, Waterston recites a speech made by Abraham Lincoln at its original location more than 140 years earlier.

The cast of Season 14 of "Law & Order," from left to right: Elisabeth Rohm as A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn, Fred Dalton Thompson as D.A. Arthur Branch, Jerry Orbach as Detective Lennie Briscoe, Sam Waterston as Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy, S. Epatha Merkerson as Lt. Anita Van Buren, and Jesse L. Martin as Detective Ed Green.

Actress Annie Parisse, left, and actor Sam Waterston work on location at Monmouth Park Wednesday, March 30, 2005, in Oceanport, N.J., while taping an episode of NBC's "Law & Order."

Miss America Lauren Nelson greets actor Sam Waterston at the Washington Press Club Foundation Dinner on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007, in Washington.

Sam Waterston arrives for the opening gala of the Harman Center for the Arts, Monday, Oct. 1, 2007, in Washington, D.C. Waterston was host for the evening.

From left, Jerry Orbach, Dick Wolf and Sam Waterston attend the NBC Season Premiere party for all 3 of the NBC "Law & Order" shows, held at One Little West 12th, Tuesday, September 21, 2004 in New York.

Actor Sam Waterston arrives for the New York Women in Film & Television's Designing Women awards gala in New York, Wednesday June 17, 2009.

Sam Waterston celebrates his Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with wife Lynn Woodruff and daughter Katherine Waterston.

Actor Ted Danson (who co-starred with Waterston in the 1986 film "Just Between Friends") kisses his hand at a dedication ceremony for Waterston's new star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010.

Sam Waterston touches his new star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame during dedication ceremonies in Los Angeles on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010.