By Nance Ebert
Contributing Writer
CAMBRIDGE – He was born in Cambridge in 1940 and grew up in North Andover, but actor Sam Waterston’s Massachusetts family roots are deep. His great-grandfather bought a house in Buzzards Bay right after the Civil War, and he has cousins whose ancestors go all the way back to the Mayflower landing in Plymouth in 1620.
In addition to being a well-known, classically trained actor, he’s a director and producer and has appeared in numerous films, television shows and theater productions. One of his leading television roles that he portrayed for many years was that of District Attorney Jack McCoy in NBC’s “Law & Order.”
Photo/Wikimedia Commons
Many awards and honors
Waterson has been nominated for many awards and won a Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, two BAFTA (British Academy Film Awards) Awards and more. In 2010, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. His career has spanned over six decades of acting on stage as well as on screen.
His children are also actors, and he enjoys working with them whenever the opportunity arises. Most notably, his daughter Elisabeth Waterston starred with him in the 2023 season finale of “Law & Order.” She played his on-screen daughter, Rebecca McCay. He also worked with his son James Waterston in the film “Dead Poets Society” as well as “Law & Order” and collaborated with his son Graham Waterston on the movie “And It Was Good.”
Stage and film work
In 1993 he appeared on Broadway, starring as Abraham Lincoln in “Abe Lincoln in Illinois.” He received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a play. He also starred in numerous productions at the Public Theatre, including “A Doll’s House,” “Hamlet,” “Benefactors” and others.
“The Great Gatsby,” “The Man in the Moon,” “The Killing Fields,” “Capricorn One,” “Serial Mom,” “Hopscotch” and “Rancho Deluxe” are just a handful of the many films he has appeared in. Playing the character of Forrest Bedford in “I’ll Fly Away” and starring in the television series “Grace and Frankie,” Waterston was nominated for a Primetime Emmy. He was also a Primetime Emmy Award Winner for Outstanding Information Series, for “Lost Civilizations” in 1996. In Aaron Sorkin’s HBO drama series “The Newsroom,” Waterston played Charlie Skinner. For this role, he was a BAFTA Award Nominee.
Originally, his film career was not quite as recognized as his work on stage, but in the 1970s, Waterston began appearing in films directed by Woody Allen. These included “Hannah and Her Sisters,” “Interiors” and “Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
Early years
Waterston was born in November 1940, the son of George Chychele Waterston, a semanticist and language teacher and Alice Tucker, a landscape painter. He attended high school at the Groton School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale College in 1962.
His first marriage to Barbara Rutledge ended in divorce and he remarried in 1976 to Lynn Louisa Woodruff. He has four children, James, Graham, Elisabeth and Katherine. He studied acting in Paris at the Sorbonne as well as the American Actors Workshop.
Legacy
According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) Waterson, now 85 years old, has appeared in approximately 91 movies.
When interviewed on “The Today Show” in February 2024 he was asked about leaving “Law & Order,” a show that he starred in for over two decades. His response was, “I knew I was going to leave and the last episode was a beautiful way to go. I am not retiring at all. My manager and my wife are in charge of finding me my next job. I can’t tell you how freeing it is.”
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