Michael Moriarty Bio
Michael George Moriarty, born on April 5, 1941, is an American-Canadian actor and musician whose career has spanned theatre, film, and television. He earned an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his portrayal of a Nazi officer in the 1978 miniseries Holocaust and won a Tony Award in 1974 for Find Your Way Home. Moriarty is best known on television for playing Executive Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Stone on Law & Order from 1990 to 1994. A semiprofessional jazz pianist and occasional political commentator, he later established residence in Canada.
Early Life and Background
Michael George Moriarty was born in Detroit, Michigan, on April 5, 1941, the son of Eleanor, née Paul, and Dr. George Moriarty, a surgeon. His parents divorced when he was eleven, an event that shaped his early years. He is the grandson of Major League Baseball player, manager, scout, and umpire George Joseph Moriarty, a connection that would later fuel one of his most acclaimed performances.
Moriarty attended middle school at Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills before transferring to the University of Detroit Jesuit High School, from which he graduated in 1959. He then majored in theater at Dartmouth College, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963. After receiving a Fulbright Scholarship, he moved to London and enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, completing a formal course of training that prepared him for a professional life on the stage.
Path to Celebrity
Before gaining fame in film and television, Moriarty spent several years working as an actor at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, where he developed the craft that would define his career. His stage work there led to his casting as the egocentric baseball player Henry Wiggen in the 1973 film Bang the Drum Slowly, opposite Robert De Niro, who played a slow-witted, terminally ill catcher. In the same year, he appeared in a television movie adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie with Katharine Hepburn, in which he played Jim, the Gentleman Caller. That performance won him an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor and announced his arrival as a serious screen presence.
His early résumé also included a small part in The Last Detail and the lead in the 1975 police drama Report to the Commissioner, in which he played rookie detective Bo Lockley. In 1974, he won a Tony Award for his performance in the play Find Your Way Home, cementing his standing as a stage actor of note. These early achievements gave him the foundation to move confidently into larger film and television roles.
Michael Moriarty Career
Early Career (1971–1977)
Michael Moriarty began his professional acting career in 1971 and quickly built a reputation on the stage. His early work at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis helped him earn the title role in the 1975 crime drama Report to the Commissioner and a part in the Academy Award-nominated film The Last Detail. In 1973, he starred in Bang the Drum Slowly with Robert De Niro and in a TV adaptation of The Glass Menagerie, with the latter earning him his first Emmy Award.
He continued to balance film and stage work through the mid-1970s, taking on supporting roles that showcased his range. By the time he won the Tony Award in 1974 for Find Your Way Home, he was already being recognized as one of the more compelling actors of his generation. The combination of stage honors and early screen credits set the stage for the breakthrough that was just around the corner.
Breakthrough (1978–1994)
Michael Moriarty’s career-defining moment came in 1978 with the television miniseries Holocaust, in which he portrayed the German SS officer Erik Dorf. The role earned him both an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award and introduced him to a wide national audience. He followed this with a string of memorable film roles throughout the 1980s, including the New York monster feature Q: The Winged Serpent, the horror comedy The Stuff, the Clint Eastwood Western Pale Rider, the fantasy film Troll, and the horror sequel It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive, many of them directed by Larry Cohen.
In 1989, he starred in the HBO production Tailspin: Behind the Korean Airliner Tragedy, portraying U.S. Air Force Major Hank Daniels in a dramatization of the 1983 shoot-down of Korean Air Lines flight 007. His largest sustained television role came from 1990 to 1994, when he starred as Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone on Law & Order. His departure from the series in 1994 was marked by public controversy involving then-Attorney General Janet Reno and a clash with executive producer Dick Wolf over television violence.
Notable Works and Milestones
Among Moriarty’s signature works are the film Bang the Drum Slowly, the miniseries Holocaust, and the long-running drama Law & Order, each representing a high point in a varied career. His portrayal of Ben Stone remains one of the most memorable characters in the early years of the Law & Order franchise, and the character was honored with a funeral scene in a 2018 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. His three Emmy Awards, one Golden Globe Award, and one Tony Award reflect a body of work that crosses stage, film, and television.
Michael Moriarty Award Nominations
Michael Moriarty has accumulated nominations across theatre, film, and television throughout his decades-long career, in addition to the awards he has won. His body of work has been recognized by the Tony Awards, the Emmy Awards, and the Golden Globe Awards, reflecting the range of his performances from Broadway to prime-time drama.
Michael Moriarty Awards Won
Michael Moriarty has earned a Tony Award, multiple Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award across his career in theatre, film, and television. His victories include the 1974 Tony Award for Best Actor for Find Your Way Home, an Emmy Award for his supporting role in The Glass Menagerie, an Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for the miniseries Holocaust, and a later Emmy Award for the television film James Dean.
Michael Moriarty Family
Michael Moriarty is the grandson of Major League Baseball player, manager, scout, and umpire George Joseph Moriarty, a well-known figure in early twentieth-century American baseball. He is the son of Dr. George Moriarty, a surgeon, and Eleanor Moriarty, née Paul. His parents divorced when he was eleven, and he was raised in the Detroit area before leaving for college and later London to study acting.
Personal Life
Michael Moriarty has been married several times. In 1966, he married ballet dancer Francoise Martinet; they had one son and divorced in 1978. That year, he married Anne Hamilton Martin, and they divorced in 1997. In 1998, he married Suzana Cabrita, and they divorced in 1999. He later entered a common-law relationship with his manager, Margaret Brychka, with whom he has been in a relationship. Shortly after leaving Law & Order, Moriarty moved to Canada, declaring himself a political exile, and has since resided in Halifax, Nova Scotia.