Acclaimed actor Sam Waterston was born on November 15, 1940 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He attended the Brooks School, a boarding school in North Andover, Massachusetts, and the Groton School. In 1958, he entered Yale University on a scholarship, graduating with a BA in French and history in 1962. He soon attended the Clinton Playhouse for several months, and has also worked in the Sorbonne in Paris and the American Actors Workshop. Some of Waterston’s stage credits include playing the title character in a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, as well as taking on the role of Benedick in Joseph Papp’s production of Much Ado About Nothing.
In 1967, Sam Waterston made his film debut in Fitzwilly. He found himself working with Katharine Hepburn in 1973, in a TV movie adaptation of Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie. His career in the industry became marked with films like The Great Gatsby in 1974, Journey into Fear, Capricorn One and Heaven’s Gate. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best actor for his performance in The Killing Fields in 1984. Waterston also landed roles in Mindwalk, The Serial Mom and Woody Allen’s Interiors. He had a cameo appearance in Hannah and Her Sisters in 1986 and was in Crimes and Misdemeanors in 1989. Waterston is known for being a six-time Emmy Award nominee, as well as a recipient of the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards. Since 1994, the actor took on the role of Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy in Law & Order. He has also taken on several other television roles in series like I’ll Fly Away, and starred on an episode segment of the series Amazing Stories. He has worked with actor Richard Belzer on four different series: Law & Order, Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Law & Order: Trial by Jury. Some of his other projects include appearances on Saturday Night Live, and voicing a character on the popular animated series Family Guy. He was also on the game show Jeopardy! with other cast members of the Law & Order universe. Waterston is also known for his participation in a recurring segment of The Colbert Report, called “Sam Waterston Says Things You Should Never Believe In A Trustworthy Manner.”