Michael Moriarty

Occasionally plays jazz piano at Rossini's in Vancouver. [July 2005]

Was at one point considered for the role of Saul Tigh on Battlestar Galactica (2004).

Has appeared in two different, completely unrelated productions with Joel Gretsch about mysterious abduction: Taken (2002) and The 4400 (2004).

Arrested for assault after slapping his then girlfriend/manager Margaret Helen Brychka after a fight in a Vancouver bar. [November 2000]

Alleges that he was dismissed from his role on Law & Order (1990) 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. However, according to executive producer Dick Wolf, Moriarty was dismissed due to "erratic behavior" on the set and that the matters between Reno and the producers of the show were settled civilly.

Was originally supposed to play the Captain Cutshaw character in William Peter Blatty's The Ninth Configuration (1980), but dropped out at the last minute and was replaced by Scott Wilson.

According to Neil Simon, Michael Moriarty played an "effeminate" Richard III in in an awkward performance of the Shakespearean play, which also featured Simon's wife Marsha Mason as Lady Anne. Simon believed the unusual portrayal was the (unnamed) director's choice, not Moriarty's, of whom Simon is a fan. This inspired the central storyline of a similarly odd Richard III in Simon's The Goodbye Girl (1977) that an actor (Richard Dreyfuss) is compelled to perform by a wacky director (Paul Benedict). Mason plays the actor's love interest, who consoles Moriarty's fictional counterpart.

Won Broadway's 1974 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for "Find Your Way Home."

Starred with Sam Waterston in The Glass Menagerie (1973). Ironically, after his character was written out of Law & Order (1990) in 1995, Waterston was cast as his replacement.

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.

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.