Born Samuel Atkinson Waterston in Cambridge, MA; educated at Groton Prep School, Yale and the Sorbonne, Paris. Lanky, intense, classically trained actor who entered film in the mid-1960s. Waterston languished in several forgettable features while piling up impressive credits on the New York stage until he scored as Nick Carraway in the glossy adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY (1974). He has appeared in a series of Woody Allen films, beginning with INTERIORS (1978) and as the rabbi with failing eyesight in CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989), and gained acclaim as journalist Sidney Schanberg in Roland Joffe's THE KILLING FIELDS (1984). In 1990, he began playing executive A.D.A. - and from 2008, District Attorney - Jack McCoy on TV's "Law and Order." Other notable credits include FITZWILLY (1967), RANCHO DELUXE and JOURNEY INTO FEAR (both 1975), CAPRICORN ONE (1978), HOPSCOTCH and HEAVEN'S GATE (both 1980), WARNING SIGN (1985), HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (uncredited) and JUST BETWEEN FRIENDS (both 1986), SEPTEMBER (1987), HOSTILE WITNESS (1988), WELCOME HOME (1989), THE MAN IN THE MOON (1991), SERIAL MOM (1994), THE JOURNEY OF AUGUST KING (1995, also producer), THE PROPRIETOR (1996), SHADOW CONSPIRACY (1997), THE COMMISSION (2002) and LE DIVORCE (2003). Waterston received an honorary degree from Yale University in 2001. He was married to Barbara Rutledge from 1964 to 1969, and they had one child: Actor James Waterston (b. 1969). In 1976, Waterston married Lynn Louisa Woodruff, and they have three children. Two of those children followed him into show business: Actresses Elisabeth and Katherine Waterston. He lives in Connecticut with his wife.  Nominated for Actor 1984: THE KILLING FIELDS 1 nomination