Michael Moriarty

Michael Moriarty Headshot

Actor • Musician

Birth Date: April 5, 1941

Age: 83 years old

Birth Place: Detroit, Michigan

A stage, screen, and TV actor, Michael Moriarty came to prominence with his sensitive performance as baseball pitcher Henry Wiggen in the acclaimed 1973 drama, "Bang the Drum Slowly." Not all of Moriarty's subsequent work has lived up to that early promise, nor has he proven to be "box office," yet he has remained in demand for stage and TV roles. Additionally, he has branched out as a composer and jazz pianist.

Moriarty has worked extensively on the stage, beginning soon after his graduation from Dartmouth in 1963. He was Octavius Caesar in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of "Antony and Cleopatra," then went to London to study acting on a Fulbright Scholarship at LAMDA. On his return, Moriarty did additional Shakespearean roles, and won a Tony for originating the role of the homosexual Julian Weston in "Find Your Way" (1974).

By that time, he had established himself in films on TV, earning an Emmy Award as Jim, the gentleman caller, in Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" (ABC, 1973), starring Katharine Hepburn. While most of his other feature film roles have generally been in forgettable films, save "Report to the Commissioner" (1975), Moriarty has excelled on TV. He is remembered as Erik Dorf, the unemployed German who becomes a Nazi to feed his family and evolves into the administrator of the extermination policies in "Holocaust" (NBC, 1978). He was Wilbur Wright in "The Winds of Kitty Hawk" (NBC, 1978), Major Daniels in "Tailspin: Behind the Korean Airliner Tragedy" (HBO, 1989) and won kudos opposite Blythe Danner in "Too Far to Go" (NBC, 1979), based on the John Updike stories that traced the dissolution of a marriage over twenty years.

In 1990, Moriarty became a series regular for the first time as Ben Stone, deputy district attorney of "Law & Order" (NBC), but was fired from the series in 1994, a year before the end of his contract. Moriarty claimed his outspoken attack on US Attorney General Janet Reno's attempts to curb violence and, in Moriarty's view, "censor" Hollywood contributed to his departure from the series. He immediately bounced back replacing Richard Chamberlain as Henry Higgins in the ill-fated Broadway revival of "My Fair Lady" and starring in the Civil Rights miniseries "Children of the Dust" (CBS, 1995). He also returned to features after a six-year absence in "Courage Under Fire" (1996), as Denzel Washington's superior officer.

Moriarty is also a playwright; his "Flight to the Fatherland" was produced in Rochester, NY, in 1982, the same year The New York Shakespeare Festival offered a production of his "The Ballad of Dexter Creed." He has pursued a music career more diligently. A jazz pianist with his own group that has performed in New York City, he has also contributed songs to the films "Q" (1982) and "The Secret of the Ice Caves" (1990) and his "Symphony for String Orchestra" has been performed publicly. Moriarty also released jazz albums in 1990 and 1991.

In 2001, Moriarty returned to acting with two back-to-back father roles. In "Along Came a Spider," he portrayed a US Senator desperately searching for his abducted daughter and in the TNT biopic "James Dean," he was cast as James Dean's father, Winton -- a role which earned him a 2002 Emmy nomination.

Credits

Of Things Past

Actor
Michael Dietrich
Movie
2023

The Phantoms

Actor
Mr. Hendricks
Movie
2022

Dry River

Actor
John "Boone" Hawkins
Movie
2021

The Last Drive-in With Joe Bob BriggsStream

Actor
Reality
2018

King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen

Self
Movie
2017

Die Chefin macht 'ne Ansage

Actor
Ben Stone
Movie
2017

The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made

Actor
Show
2015

The Yellow Wallpaper

Actor
Mr. Isaac Hendricks
Movie
2011

Hitler Meets Christ

Actor
Hitler
Movie
2007

Hitler Meets Christ

Screenwriter
Movie
2007

12 Hours to Live

Actor
Donald Saunders
Movie
2006

Santa Baby

Actor
T.J. Hamilton
Movie
2006

Masters of HorrorStream

Actor
Jim Wheeler
Series
2005

Neverwas

Actor
Dick
Movie
2005

Deadly Skies

Actor
General Dutton
Movie
2005

The 4400

Actor
Series
2004
95%

The 4400

Guest Star
Series
2004
95%

Don't Call Me Tonto!

Actor
Callohan
Movie
2003

Mob Princess

Actor
Eddy
Movie
2003

Taken

Actor
Show
2002

Talking to Heaven

Actor
Show
2002

Along Came a SpiderStream

Actor
Senator Hank Rose
Movie
2001
32%

James Dean

Actor
Winton Dean
Movie
2001

À tout prix

Actor
Larry Frank
Movie
2001

House of Luk

Actor
Mr. Kidd
Movie
2001

Swimming Upstream

Actor
Morris Bird II
Movie
2001

Becoming Dick

Actor
Director
Movie
2000

Children of Fortune

Actor
Sheriff Bast
Movie
2000

Children of My Heart

Actor
Rodrique Eymard
Movie
2000

Bad Faith

Actor
Mark Solomon
Movie
2000

Strange World

Guest Star
Show
1999

Shiloh 2: Shiloh Season

Actor
Ray Preston
Movie
1999

The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg

Self
Movie
1999

Woman Wanted

Actor
Richard Goddard
Movie
1999

The Art of Murder

Actor
Movie
1999

Earthquake in New York

Actor
Captain Paul Stenning
Movie
1998

Dead Man's GunStream

Actor
John Pike
Series
1997

The Arrow

Actor
Show
1997

Shiloh

Actor
Mr. Preston
Movie
1997

Managua

Actor
Movie
1997

Major Crime

Actor
Gordon Tallas
Movie
1997

Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal

Actor
Show
1996

Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal

Guest Star
Show
1996

Poltergeist: The LegacyStream

Guest Star
Series
1996

Cagney & Lacey: True Convictions

Actor
Matthew Wylie
Movie
1996

Courage Under FireStream

Actor
Brigadier General Hershberg
Movie
1996
86%

Crime of the Century

Actor
Governor Harold Hoffman
Movie
1996

Calm at Sunset

Actor
Russell Pfeiffer
Movie
1996

The Outer LimitsStream

Guest Star
Solicitor-General Wallace Gannon
Series
1995

Children of the Dust

Actor
Show
1995

A Good Day to Die

Actor
John Maxwell
Movie
1995

Touched by an AngelStream

Guest Star
Series
1994

Born Too Soon

Actor
Fox Butterfield
Movie
1993

Law & OrderStream

Actor
Asst. D.A. Ben Stone
Series
1990

Full Fathom Five

Actor
McKenzie
Movie
1990

Secret of the Ice Cave

Actor
Manny Wise
Movie
1990

Tailspin: Behind the Korean Airliner Tragedy

Actor
Richard Burt
Movie
1989

Nitti: The Enforcer

Actor
Hugh Kelly
Movie
1988

Windmills of the Gods

Actor
Ellison
Movie
1988

It's Alive III: Island of the Alive

Actor
Jarvis
Movie
1987

A Return to Salem's LotStream

Actor
Joe Weber
Movie
1987

Torres Diabólicas

Actor
Movie
1987

Dark Tower

Actor
Dennis Randall
Movie
1987

Hanoi Hilton

Actor
Movie
1987

The Hanoi HiltonStream

Actor
Williamson
Movie
1987

TrollStream

Actor
Harry Potter Sr.
Movie
1986
30%

The Twilight Zone

Actor
Series
1985

The Equalizer

Guest Star
Dr. Peter Kapik
Series
1985

La Sustancia Maldita

Actor
Movie
1985

Blood Link

Actor
Keith Mannings/Craig Mannings
Movie
1985

Odd Birds

Actor
Brother T.S. Murphy
Movie
1985

Pale RiderStream

Actor
Hull Barret
Movie
1985
93%

The Stuff

Actor
David `'Mo'` Rutherford
Movie
1985

Hotel

Guest Star
Soap
1983

The Sound of Murder

Actor
Charles Norberry
Movie
1982

The Winged Serpent

Actor
Jimmy Quinn
Movie
1982

Q

Actor
Jimmy Quinn
Movie
1982

Reborn

Actor
Mark
Movie
1981

Too Far to Go

Actor
Richard Maple
Movie
1979

Holocaust

Actor
Erik Dorf
Miniseries
1978

The Winds of Kitty Hawk

Actor
Wilbur Wright
Movie
1978

Who'll Stop the Rain?

Actor
John Converse
Movie
1978

The Deadliest Season

Actor
Gerry Miller
Movie
1977

Investigación Peligrosa

Actor
Movie
1975

Report to the Commissioner

Actor
Bo Lockley
Movie
1975

Shoot It: Black, Shoot It: Blue

Actor
Herbert G. Rucker
Movie
1974

The Last DetailStream

Actor
Marine O.D.
Movie
1973
87%

The Glass Menagerie

Actor
Jim O'Connor
Movie
1973

Bang the Drum SlowlyStream

Actor
Henry 'Arthur' Wiggen
Movie
1973
90%

A Summer Without Boys

Actor
Abe Battle
Movie
1973

Hickey & Boggs

Actor
Ballard
Movie
1972

Glory Boy

Actor
Trubee Pell
Movie
1971

My Old Man's Place

Actor
Trubee Pell
Movie
1971