As one of Hollywood's tallest actors standing at 6' 4", he will always be noticed. Michael Moriarty is one of the great character T.V. actors of all time. He was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1941. Moriarty was to move to London, England where he built up a name as a great stage actor. It was also here he attended London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts as a Fullbright Scholar and as a student of Stella Adler. Michael Moriarty also had early employment selling encyclopedias and tyres. Moriarty from 1971 was to star in a number of sucessful movies, like 'Bang the drum slowly' and 'The Last Detail', but his biggest success was to follow when he won a Golden Globe for his performance as the cruel, old, vicious Erik Dorf in 'Holocaust' (a 1978 mini series) which also stars Jim Woods.
Was once on the editorial board for New York Quarterly. He has also published a number of poems in this journal. Alleges that he was dismissed from his role on "Law and Order" because of his threatened lawsuit against Janet Reno, who had been campaigning against violence in the media and cited his show as a major offender. Arrested for assault after slapping his girlfriend/manager Margaret Brychka after a fight in a Vancouver bar. [November 2000] In 1971, Michael stunned playgoers at the Alley Theater in Houston by suddenly stopping in the middle of a performance of "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail," told the audience he was too tired to continue and walked off the stage. The audience went home, and Moriarty left town. In the 1990s attempted to enter Canadian politics by forming his own political party. While a student at Dartmouth College, he was a roommate of Stephen Macht. Loves Jerome Kern songs. Has appeared in two different, completely unrelated productions with Joel Gretsch about alien abduction: _"Taken" (2002) (mini)_ and "4400, The" (2004)_ . Won Broadway's 1974 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for "Find Your Way Home." His grandfather, George Moriarty, was a major league baseball player and then a MLB umpire. Frequently cast in Larry Cohen's films Starred with Sam Waterston in The Glass Menagerie. Ironically, after his character was written out of Law & Order in 1995, Waterston was cast as his replacement. While he has won a number of Emmy Awards, he never won for his role on Law & Order. Was originally supposed to play the Captain Cutshaw character in William Peter Blatty's The Ninth Configuration, but dropped out at the last minute and was replaced by Scott Wilson.