Sam Waterston on screen and stage



Sam Waterston is an American actor and producer best known for his portrayal of district attorney Jack McCoy in the long-running police procedural and legal drama television show Law & Order.

Waterston made his film debut in the 1965 drama film The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean. Waterston went on to appear as bond salesman Nick Carraway in the 1974 feature film version of The Great Gatsby, earning Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor and New Star of the Year. Waterston also portrayed Old West figure Frank Canton in Heaven's Gate (1980). Two years later, Waterston played American journalist Sydney Schanberg in the 1984 British drama The Killing Fields, opposite Haing S. Ngor and John Malkovich. For his performance, Waterston was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

On television, Waterston played a shoe salesman in the television drama film The Glass Menagerie (1973), receiving a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Waterston's portrayal of American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in the 1980 television miniseries Oppenheimer saw him earn a Golden Globe nomination. He also played the title role of President Abraham Lincoln in the miniseries Lincoln (1988) and the 1990 documentary miniseries The Civil War. He portrayed a district attorney in drama television series I'll Fly Away (1991–93), winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama. In 1994, he made his first appearance as Jack McCoy in Law & Order. Waterston went on to become the show's second longest-running cast member. The role won him a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. He has made guest appearances as McCoy on other shows, including Homicide: Life on the Street (1997, 99) and spin-offs Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2000, '07, '10, '18) and Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005), and in Exiled: A Law & Order Movie (1998). Waterston portrayed the president of a fictional news corporation on political drama The Newsroom (2012–14).

Waterston has starred in numerous stage productions at the Public Theatre, including Indians (1969), The Trial of Catonsville Nine (1970), A Doll's House (1975), Hamlet (1975), Measure for Measure (1977), and Benefactors (1980). He portrayed Abraham Lincoln on Broadway in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1993), receiving a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. Waterston has also appeared in La Turista (1967), Halfway Up the Tree (1967), and Henry IV, Part 1, as well as Henry IV, Part 2 (1968), (1972, 1975–76, 2008), Much Ado About Nothing (1972–73, 2004), The Tempest (1974, 2015), and King Lear (2011).