This Is Why All These Actors Had To Leave Law & Order

Though Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has surpassed its predecessor's longevity, the original Law & Order still ranks as one of the longest-running primetime series in American television history; the police procedural aired new episodes on NBC across the span of two decades (via NBC). 

Of course, with any TV show that runs that long, you're bound to see some turnover, and Law & Order cycled through dozens of series regulars over its 20-season run. In fact, by the time the show ended in 2010, not a single original cast member was left. (The longest-serving actor at the time was S. Epatha Merkerson, who started playing Lieutenant Anita Van Buren in season 4.)

Many of the Law & Order stars left the show simply because they were ready for new projects, while other actors left because of behind-the-scenes issues. To quote the Law & Order intro voiceover, these are their stories...

The first actor to leave Law & Order was George Dzundza, who made his exit in 1991 after just one season of playing Sergeant Max Greevey, the seasoned detective partner of Chris Noth's Mike Logan. "I felt that it was a plot-driven show," Dzundza told PopEntertainment in 2003, reflecting on saying yes to the series. "There was a lot of interplay between Chris and I."

As season 1 progressed, however, Dzundza found the stories to becoming "more Dragnet-like... I said no, this is not for me," he continued. "This is not what I signed on to do. And I had to take care of my family, frankly, as well." And so, in the season 2 premiere, Greevey — played by a body double — is gunned down outside his home.

Dzundza went on to star in the first seasons of two other series: the NBC sitcom Jesse and the CBS crime drama Hack. And between 2005 and 2007, he had a memorable arc on Grey's Anatomy, playing the ailing father of George O'Malley (T.R. Knight).

The actor behind Sergeant Phil Carreta, Mike Logan's partner after Max Greevey's death, lasted little more than one season on Law & Order. Paul Sorvino left in 1992, midway through season 2, with his character getting shot in the line of duty and transferred to a desk job.

The Orlando Sentinel reported at the time that Sorvino exited the role because he wanted to pursue a singing career. And sure enough, nearly a decade and a half later, the actor starred in the New York City Opera's 2006 production of The Most Happy Fella. "The part is close to two octaves here and there," he told TheaterMania at the time. "In my voice, I have three octaves. I don't find the range daunting, but to do it right is daunting. I want to do it right."

More recently, Sorvino guest-starred in episodes of Elementary, The Goldbergs, and Grandfathered. And in 2019, he started starring in the Epix crime drama Godfather of Harlem, playing real-life crime boss Frank Costello.

After four seasons of playing Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone on Law & Order, Michael Moriarty departed 1994 amid a public conflict with then-Attorney General Janet Reno; at the time, she'd endorsed legislation to limit violent programming like Law & Order.

After meeting with Reno — alongside producer Dick Wolf and other NBC bigwigs — Moriarty criticized her in a news conference, according to the Los Angeles Times. But no one rallied to his side, and Moriarty ended up leaving Law & Order, claiming the writers punished him for his activism. (On the show, Stone resigns from his post after a witness whose testimony he coerced is murdered.)

Moriarty told The Wall Street Journal in 2000 he left Law & Order because of "creeping McCarthyism," saying Reno's crusade against TV violence amounted to censorship. He continued acting, however, appearing in the films Courage Under Fire and Shiloh, and the TV shows Touched by an Angel and The 4400. Moriarty also won a 2002 Emmy Award for his performance as Winston Dean in the TV movie James Dean.

Detective Mike Logan continued crime-solving until the end of Law & Order's fifth season in 1995, when actor Chris Noth took his leave of the program. According to the Associated Press, producer Dick Wolf said Noth was due for a "huge" raise that would be "impossible to grant."

However, the head of the Noth's management company said the actor was ready for a film career anyway. "He's really sorry that they couldn't get it together, but he's had five great years, and his feeling is that it's time to move on," they shared. Logan exits the Law & Order plot when he punches a politician and gets transferred to a job in Staten Island, though Noth later reprised the part in the TV movie Law & Order: Exile and the spinoff Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Noth didn't rest on his laurels after leaving Law & Order, though he's known more for his TV roles than his film work. He played love interest Mr. Big on the HBO rom-com Sex and the City, for example, and philandering husband Peter Florrick on the CBS legal drama The Good Wife.

For the first three seasons of Law & Order, Dann Florek played Captain Donald Cragen and Richard Brooks played Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette. When season 4 picked up in 1993, however, both characters were gone without explanation. According to a 1997 Orlando Sentinel report, both actors were let go from Law & Order to open up cast positions for the series' two lead female characters: Lieutenant Anita Van Buren and Assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid. 

Both Florek and Brooks eventually returned as guest stars in subsequent seasons of Law & Order. Additionally, Florek starred in the first 15 seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; he left the spinoff show in 2013 because his character reached the mandatory NYPD retirement age, as showrunner Warren Leight explained at the time (via E! News). Brooks, meanwhile, moved on to other TV projects, including a starring role on Being Mary Jane and recurring parts on The Flash, All Rise, Bosch, The Haves and the Have Nots, and Good Trouble.

Jill Hennessy played Assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid from season 4 to season 6 of Law & Order, leaving the show in 1996. In the plot, Kincaid dies in a car accident as she drives a drunk Lennie Briscoe home from a bar.

In a 2006 interview with The Morning Call, Hennessy said the role of an ADA on Law & Order is "limited" since the characters are supposed to keep their personal feelings out of the job. "One of the reasons you see actors moving on is that it's so easy to become typecast," she explained. "If they see you in that one light, people presume that's all you can do. I was getting that from day one, with casting directors basically thinking, 'She can't do comedy. She can't do emotional work.'" Hennessy added that actors usually strive for variety in their career, as opposed to staying in one genre.

Hennessy later led the cast of the NBC procedural Crossing Jordan before taking parts in the TV shows Madam Secretary and Shots Fired. In 2019, she started starring as Jenny Rohr in the Showtime drama City on a Hill.

Mike Logan's replacement was Detective Rey Curtis, who entered the Law & Order universe in season 6 and exited at the end of season 9 in 1999. In that season's finale, Curtis takes an early retirement to tend to help his wife manage her MS.

And offscreen, actor Benjamin Bratt had family on his mind, too. "After four years I've felt like it was time to get back home to my family," Bratt said in a statement, per the New York Post. "How do you walk away from the best job in the world, and a group of people you've grown to love?" Bratt added that it was an "extremely difficult decision," but expressed hope that he'd be able to work with his Law & Order colleagues again. And sure enough, he came back to the show for one episode in season 20.

After leaving the show, Bratt went on to appear in the films Miss Congeniality, Traffic, and Coco, and starred in the TV shows The Cleaner, Private Practice, 24: Live Another Day, and Star.

Steven Hill, who was already famous for the TV series Mission: Impossible by the time he landed his Law & Order part, played District Attorney Adam Schiff on the NBC show. He bid his castmates goodbye in 2000, with his character leaving his job at the end of season 10 to coordinate commemorations of the Holocaust Project. Producer Dick Wolf later told Newsday that Hill, then 78, left the show because he was tired and didn't want to commute from the suburbs into Manhattan every week.

Law & Order ended up being Hill's final onscreen acting role; the actor died in 2016 at the age of 94. "Steven was not only one of the truly great actors of his generation, he was one of the most intelligent people I have ever met," Wolf told Variety at the time, eulogizing the late TV star. "He is also the only actor I've known who consistently tried to cut his own lines. He will be missed, but fortunately, he can be seen ubiquitously on Law & Order reruns."

From season 9 to season 11 of Law & Order, Angie Harmon portrayed Assistant District Attorney Abbie Carmichael. She gave up the role in 2001 for a variety of reasons, as she told Cinema Confidential two years later: the show took her away from her then-husband, for example, and her role was feeling one-note.

But most of all, Harmon had her sights on the silver screen. "I left Law & Order because I really honestly did want to do movies and did want to be a movie star since I was a little girl," she revealed. "I loved the show. It just kind of got to the point where... the character can't grow and do anything else."

Harmon did star in a handful of films, including Agent Cody Banks and Fun With Dick and Jane. But before long, she ended up back on television, starring in the NBC medical drama Inconceivable and the ABC procedural Women's Murder Club. Harmon is probably best known, however, for her long-running role as Jane Rizzoli on the TNT procedural Rizzoli & Isles.

Jerry Orbach — then famous for his Broadway turns in the musicals Guys and Dolls, Chicago, and 42nd Street – joined Law & Order in season 3 to replace Paul Sorvino. Orbach played Detective Lennie Briscoe, staying on the show until 2004, when the character retired at the end of the 14th season. That retirement was short-lived, however; Orbach reprised the part in the first two episodes of the short-lived spinoff show Law & Order: Trial by Jury.

Before his Law & Order exit, Orbach told his colleagues he was battling prostate cancer, and it was that disease that led to his death at age 69 later that year, according to the Los Angeles Times. Producer Dick Wolf paid tribute to the veteran actor in a statement to the Times. "I'm immensely saddened by the passing of not only a friend and colleague, but a legendary figure of 20th century show business who was a star of screen, stage, and television," he shared. "He was one of the most honored performers of his generation. His loss is irreplaceable."

Elisabeth Röhm joined Law & Order at the start of season 12, and left three seasons later, bidding farewell to the role of Assistant District Attorney Serena Southerlyn in 2005. In the show, District Attorney Arthur Branch fires Southerlyn for being too emotional; then, in one of the more controversial Law & Order moments, she comes out as gay during the firing. According to the Chicago Tribune, GLAAD criticized the last-minute reveal, saying it was "really disappointing to have one of the leads come out five seconds before she exits the show."

Talking to Today at the time, Röhm explained that she felt finished with the role. "I traveled and I shot a film this summer, and it opened my eyes to something beyond what's comfortable, and I realized that I didn't have anything else that I could offer this character," she revealed. Röhm's roles in the years since include parts in the films American Hustle, Joy, and Bombshell and in the TV shows The Last Ship, The Oath, and Jane the Virgin.

The end of Law & Order's 16th season in 2006 was also the end of Dennis Farina's tenure on the procedural. Farina had joined the show as Detective Joe Fontana in season 15, following the death of Jerry Orbach.

As Fontana was sent off to retirement, Farina's spokesperson told the Today that the actor wanted to pursue other offers and to continue work with his production company. According to IndieWire, Farina's production company, You're Faded Films, helped produce his 2011 film The Last Rites of Joe May. The actor's other post-Law & Order roles include parts in the movies Bottle Shock, What Happens in Vegas, and Authors Anonymous. Farina also had a starring role in the HBO drama Luck.

Farina died in 2013 at age 67 after suffering a blood clung in his lung, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "I was stunned and saddened to hear about Dennis' unexpected passing this morning," producer Dick Wolf lamented. "The Law & Order family extends sympathy and condolences to his family. He was a great guy."

After firing Serena Southerlyn, District Attorney Arthur Burch hires a new Assistant District Attorney named Alexandra Borgia, which brought actress Annie Parisse into the Law & Order world. Parisse lasted just 34 episodes before home invaders kidnapped and murdered Borgia in 2006's season 16 finale. The actress told Newsday at the time that her character's death was "a total blast" to film, since it's usually Law & Order guest stars who get the emotional scenes. "People always tell me, 'That was terrible what they did to you,'" she explained. "I try to comfort them by telling them I had a really good time doing it."

Parisse also explained that she asked to leave the show, adding that she was excited to take on different work. "I like the adventure of going from job to job to job. Not knowing what's next," she continued. "That's just my crazy personality." Parisse later took big roles in the TV shows Rubicon, The Following, Vinyl, Person of Interest, The Looming Tower, and Friends From College.

The late Fred Thompson was still a United States senator — a Republican representing Tennessee — when he joined the cast of Law & Order in 2002 at the start of the show's 13th season. After five seasons of playing District Attorney Arthur Branch, Thompson left the show at the end of season 17 in 2007. The reason? He was preparing to run for U.S. president. In an interview with Fox News at the time, the actor said his Law & Order exit showed the "seriousness" with which he was running.

Thompson's shot at the Oval Office ended the following year, however; he withdrew from the race in 2008 after a series of poor primary and caucus results, according to the The Post and Courier. Afterward, Thompson returned to his screen career, appearing in the films Secretariat and 90 Minutes in Heaven, and the TV shows The Good Wife and Allegiance.

Thompson died in 2015 after a recurrence of lymphoma, according to a family statement obtained by The New York Times. "Fred was the same man on the floor of the Senate, the movie studio, or the town square of Lawrenceburg, [Tennessee]," his family added.

Jesse L. Martin starred in the Tony-winning musical Rent before joining Law & Order; he played Detective Ed Green (Rey Curtis' replacement) from the start of season 10 to the middle of season 18. As the actor decided to hang up the badge in 2008, Green left the squad out of guilt over killing a suspect.

Martin told Entertainment Weekly at the time that he was "definitely happy" about the exit. "It was pretty much time for me," he explained. "I need to get back on stage before I get too scared to do it again. And with that schedule, it would be really difficult for me to ever really get to do anything like that."

Martin did indeed return to Broadway, starring in a 2010 production of The Merchant of Venice. That same year, he performed in The Winter's Tale for Shakespeare in the Park. In 2014, Martin returned to full-time TV stardom – and in a police detective role, no less — with the premiere of The Flash. Martin plays Detective Joe West in the CW superhero series.