Michael Moriarty

About this actor

Michael Moriarty (born April 5, 1941) is an American-Canadian actor of stage and screen, and a jazz musician. He played Benjamin Stone for four seasons on the TV series Law & Order. Moriarty, an Irish American, was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Elinor (née Paul) and George Moriarty, a police 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. He then matriculated at Dartmouth College in the class of 1963, where he was a theatre 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. In 1973, Moriarty was cast to play the egocentric Henry Wiggen in Bang the Drum Slowly, a film about the unlikely friendship between two baseball teammates –...