Michael Moriarty
| Michael Moriarty | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 5, 1941 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor/Musician |
| Years active | 1971—present |
| Spouse(s) |
Suzana Cabrita (1998-1999; divorced) Anne Hamilton Martin (1978-1997; divorced) Francoise Martinet (1966-1978; divorced) Margaret Brychka (?-present) |
Michael Moriarty (born April 5, 1941) is an American-Canadian stage and screen actor and a jazz musician. He played Benjamin Stone for the first four seasons in the TV series Law & Order.
Early life
Moriarty, an Irish-American[1] was born in Detroit, Michigan the son of Elinor (née Paul) and George Moriarty,[2] a surgeon. His grandfather, George Moriarty, was a third baseman, umpire and manager in the major leagues for nearly 40 years.
Moriarty attended middle school at Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills before transferring to the University of Detroit Jesuit High School for high school.[3] He then matriculated at Dartmouth College in the class of 1963, where he was a theatre college major. After receiving his degree, he left for London, England, where he enrolled in the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, after receiving a Fulbright Scholarship.
Acting career
In 1973, Moriarty was cast as the egocentric Henry Wiggen in Bang the Drum Slowly, a film about the unlikely friendship between two baseball teammates – the second being Robert De Niro, a slow-thinking catcher who becomes terminally ill. In the same year, Moriarty starred in a TV movie adaptation of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie with Katharine Hepburn. Coincidentally, the film also featured Sam Waterston, who later replaced Moriarty as the Executive Assistant District Attorney on Law & Order. Moriarty's role in The Glass Menagerie (as "Jim," the Gentleman Caller; Waterston played the son "Tom") won him an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor of the Year.[4] In 1974, Moriarty starred as rookie detective Bo Lockley in the acclaimed gritty police drama Report to the Commissioner.
Moriarty won a Tony Award in 1974 for his performance in the play Find Your Way Home. His career on the screen was slow to develop, while his theatre career was flourishing. He starred as a German SS officer in the television miniseries Holocaust, which earned him another Emmy. Through the 1980s, Moriarty starred in such Larry Cohen movies as Q, The Stuff, It's Alive III: Island of the Alive, and A Return to Salem's Lot (much later, he appeared in Cohen's Masters of Horror episode "Pick Me Up"), as well as Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider and The Hanoi Hilton. In 1986, he starred in the fantasy science fiction movie Troll, playing the role of Harry Potter Sr. (unrelated to the 2001 Harry Potter series.)
From 1990 to 1994, Moriarty starred as Ben Stone on Law & Order. He left the show in 1994, alleging that his departure was a result of his threatening a lawsuit against then-Attorney General Janet Reno, who had cited Law & Order as offensively violent. Moriarty criticized Reno's comment, and claimed that not only did she want to censor shows like Law & Order but also such fare as Murder, She Wrote. He later accused Law & Order executive producer Dick Wolf of not taking his concerns seriously, and claimed that Wolf and other network executives were "caving in" to Reno's "demands" on the issue of TV violence. On September 20, 1994 on The Howard Stern Show, he made an offer to NBC, claiming that he would return to his role on the show if Dick Wolf was fired. Moriarty published a full-page advertisement in a Hollywood trade magazine, calling upon fellow artists to stand up with him against attempts to censor TV show content. He subsequently wrote and published The Gift of Stern Angels, his account of this time in his life.[5]
Wolf and others working on Law & Order tell a different story, however. On November 18, 1993, Moriarty and Wolf, along with other television executives, met with Reno to dissuade her from supporting any law that would censor the show. Wolf said that Moriarty overreacted to any effect the law was likely to have on the show. Law & Order producers claim they were forced to remove Moriarty from the series because of "erratic behavior", an example of which reportedly happened during the filming of the episode "Breeder" when, according to the episode's director, Arthur Forney, Moriarty was unable to deliver his lines with a straight face. Series and network officials deny any connection between his departure and Janet Reno. Wolf also denies that the show has become less violent, graphic or controversial since 1994.[6]
Moriarty acted in The Last Detail, Courage Under Fire, Along Came a Spider, Shiloh, Emily of New Moon and James Dean, for which he won his third Emmy. In 2007 he debuted his first feature-length film as screenwriter and performed the role of a man who thinks he is Adolf Hitler in Hitler Meets Christ.
Musical career
In addition to his acting career, Moriarty is a semi-professional jazz pianist and singer, as well as a classical composer. He has recorded three jazz albums (though the first, Reaching Out, went unreleased). He has performed live regularly in both New York and Vancouver with a jazz trio and quintet. In a 1990 concert review, New York Times reviewer Stephen Holden called Moriarty "a jazz pianist of considerable skill, an oddball singer with more than one vocal personality, and a writer of eccentric, jivey jazz songs".[7]
Politics
Moriarty is politically active, describing himself as a "centrist", and sometimes as a "realist".[8]
Moriarty announced his intention to run for the presidency in 2008 in an interview in the November 2005 issue of Northwest Jazz Profile, but he never formally declared his candidacy.[9] He later endorsed fellow former Law & Order actor Fred Thompson for the presidency.[10] He has been a frequent contributor of numerous political columns to the ESR (Enter Stage Right) online Journal of Conservativism.
Personal life
Shortly after leaving Law & Order, Moriarty moved to Canada, declaring himself a political exile. He lived for a time in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he was granted Canadian citizenship, and Toronto, Ontario before settling in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Moriarty lives in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, where he still acts, writes and plays music. On the blog Enter Stage Right Moriarty writes that he was a "very bad drunk", but that as of February 1, 2004, he had been sober for three years.[11]
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | My Old Man's Place | Trubee Pell | |
| 1972 | Hickey & Boggs | Ballard | |
| 1973 | Bang the Drum Slowly | Henry 'Author' Wiggen | |
| 1973 | A Summer Without Boys | Abe Battle | Television movie |
| 1973 | The Last Detail | Marine O.D. | |
| 1973 | The Glass Menagerie | Jim O'Connor | Television movie Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie |
| 1974 | Shoot It Black, Shoot It Blue | Herbert G. Rucker | |
| 1975 | Report to the Commissioner | Bo Lockley | |
| 1977 | The Deadliest Season | Gerry Miller | Television movie, featuring Meryl Streep in her first movie role. |
| 1978 | Who'll Stop the Rain | John Converse | |
| 1978 | The Winds of Kitty Hawk | Wilbur Wright | Television movie |
| 1979 | Too Far to Go | Richard Maple | |
| 1981 | Reborn | Mark | |
| 1982 | The Sound of Murder | Charles Norberry | |
| 1982 | Q | Jimmy Quinn | |
| 1982 | Blood Link | Keith Mannings | |
| 1985 | Odd Birds | Brother T. S. Murphy | |
| 1985 | Pale Rider | Hull Barret | |
| 1985 | The Stuff | David 'Mo' Rutherford | |
| 1986 | Troll | Harry Potter, Sr. | |
| 1987 | The Hanoi Hilton | Williamson | |
| 1987 | It's Alive III: Island of the Alive | Jarvis | |
| 1987 | A Return to Salem's Lot | Joe Weber | |
| 1988 | Windmills of the Gods | Eillison | Television movie |
| 1988 | Frank Nitti: The Enforcer | Hugh Kelly | Television movie |
| 1989 | The Secret of the Ice Cave | Manny Wise | |
| 1989 | Dark Tower | Dennis Randall | |
| 1990 | Full Fathom Five | McKenzie | |
| 1995 | Children of the Dust | John Maxwell | Television movie |
| 1995 | Broken Silence | Mulligan | Chicago International Film Festival Award for Best Supporting Actor |
| 1996 | Courage Under Fire | General Hershberg | |
| 1996 | Shiloh | Ray Preston | |
| 1997 | The Arrow | President Dwight D. Eisenhower | Television movie |
| 1998 | Earthquake in New York | Captain Paul Stenning | |
| 1999 | The Art of Murder | Cole Sheridan | |
| 1999 | Shiloh 2: Shiloh Season | Ray Preston | |
| 2000 | Woman Wanted | Richard Goddard | |
| 2000 | Children of My Heart | Rodrique Eymard | Television movie |
| 2001 | House of Luk | Mr. Kidd | |
| 2001 | James Dean | Winton Dean | Television movie Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie |
| 2001 | Along Came a Spider | Senator Hank Rose | |
| 2003 | Cold Blooded | Mark Solomon | |
| 2005 | Fugitives Run | Callohan | |
| 2005 | Neverwas | Dick | |
| 2006 | 12 Hours to Live | Donald Saunders | Television movie |
| 2006 | Deadly Skies | General Dutton | Television movie |
| 2007 | Hitler Meets Christ | Hitler | |
| 2012 | "The Yellow Wallpaper | Mr. Isaac Hendricks | |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Holocaust | Eric Dorf | 4 episodes Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie |
| 1986 | Cagney & Lacey | Patrick Lowell | Episode: "Act of Conscience" |
| 1986 | Hotel | Brad Carlton | Episode: "Heroes" |
| 1987 | The Equalizer | Dr. Peter Kapik | Episode: "Encounter in a Closed Room" |
| 1988 | The Twilight Zone | Warren Cribbons | Episode: "20/20 Vision" |
| 1989 | The Equalizer | Wayne 'Seti' Virgil | Episode: "Starfire" Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series |
| 1990–1994 | Law & Order | Executive A.D.A. Ben Stone | 88 episodes Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (1991–94) |
| 1997–1999 | PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal | Michael Kelly | 10 episodes |
| 1997 | Dead Man's Gun | John Pike | Episode: "Death Warrant" |
| 1998 | Poltergeist: The Legacy | Major Robert 'Johnathan' Boyle | Episode: "Father to Son" |
| 1998 | Touched by an Angel | Dr. Charles Crayton | Episode: "Seek and Ye Shall Find" |
| 1998 | Emily of New Moon | Douglas Starr | 3 episodes |
| 1999 | Strange World | Unknown | Episode: "Pilot" |
| 2000 | The Adventures of Jules Verne | Dr. Draco | Episode: "The Eyes of Lazzaro" |
| 2000 | The Outer Limits | Solicitor-General Wallace Gannon | Episode: "Final Appeal" |
| 2001 | Mentors | William Randolph Hearst | Episode: "Citizen Cates" |
| 2002 | Stephen King's Dead Zone | Reverend Eugene 'Gene' Purdy | Episode: "Unaired Pilot" |
| 2002 | Taken | Colonel Thomas Campbell | Episode: "Beyond the Sky" |
| 2002 | Just Cause | Dr. Hamilton Whitney | Episode: "Death's Detail" |
| 2004 | The 4400 | Orson Bailey | Episode: "Pilot" |
| 2006 | Masters of Horror | Jim Wheeler | Episode: "Pick Me Up" |
References
- ↑ "Michael Moriarty - I am Jack Ryan". Mmuuuhp.com. 2009-07-04. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
- ↑ "Michael Moriarty Biography (1941-)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2011-03-09.
- ↑ Moriarty, Michael (May 15, 2006) With Churchillian defiance", www.enterstageright.com.
- ↑ Internet Movie Database awards page for Moriarty
- ↑ Moriarty, Michael (1997). The Gift of Stern Angels. Exile Editions. ISBN 1-55096-183-7.
- ↑ Courrier, Kevin; Susan Green (November 20, 1999). Law & Order: The Unofficial Companion. Renaissance Books. pp. 136, 140. ISBN 1-58063-108-8.
- ↑ "Review/Cabaret; Singer, Actor And Pianist Rolled Into One". The New York Times. February 15, 1990. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- ↑ "The Realists". American-partisan.com. 2001-08-27. Retrieved 2011-03-09.
- ↑ "Moriarty: 'I'm running for president in 2008'".
- ↑ Actor Michael Moriarty Endorses Fellow Law & Order Star for President by Jim Kouri, CPP
- ↑ Moriarty, Michael (May 29, 2006)"RU486 or against it?", www.enterstageright.com
External links
- Michael Moriarty at the Internet Movie Database
- Michael Moriarty at the Internet Broadway Database
- Michael Moriarty at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Michael Moriarty at AllMovie
- Michael Moriarty at the TCM Movie Database
- Yahoo Movies: Michael Moriarty
- Michael Moriarty UUU fan site (via archive.org): includes semi-regular blog posts by Moriarty
|