Michael Moriarty Biography
Michael Moriarty is a Canadian-American stage, jazz musician, and screen actor best known for playing supporting characters. He won an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a Tony Award for his first role on American television as a Nazi SS officer in the 1978 miniseries Holocaust.
Where was Michael Moriarty born? – Age
Moriarty was born on April 5, 1941, in Detroit, Michigan, United States of America. He is 82 years old as of April 2023.
Michael Moriarty Education
Moriarty attended Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills for middle school before transferring to the University of Detroit Jesuit High School, where he graduated in 1959. He then enrolled in the class of 1963 at Dartmouth College as a theatre college major. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree, he moved to London, England, to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), courtesy of a Fulbright Scholarship.
Michael Moriarty Height
He stands at a height of 6’4″ (193 cm) tall.
Michael Moriarty Family- Parents
Moriarty was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He is the son of Eleanor and surgeon George Moriarty. For nearly 40 years, his grandfather, George Moriarty, was a third baseman, umpire, and manager in major league baseball.
Michael Moriarty Wife-Son
Michael has had several marriages. His first marriage was to Francoise Martinet, with whom he divorced in 1978. He married for the second time in 1978, to Anne Hamilton Martin, and the marriage lasted nearly two decades before ending in 1997. In 1998, he married Suzana Cabrita for the third time. This marriage, too, failed, and the couple divorced in 1999. He is currently married to his fourth wife, Margaret Brychka.
Michael Moriarty Career
In 1971, he debuted in the film ‘My Old Man’s Place,’ playing Trubee Pell. He played Ballard in the neo-noir detective film ‘Hickey & Boggs the following year. In the 1973 film ‘Bang the Drum Slowly,’ he played Henry Wiggen, a talented baseball player. The story revolves around Henry’s friendship with a dying teammate played by Robert De Niro. He played Jim O’Connor, a gentleman, in the 1973 television film “The Glass Menagerie.” Tennessee Williams’ play of the same name inspired the film. In 1975, he portrayed Detective Bo Lockley in the crime drama ‘Report to the Commissioner,’ in which his character unknowingly murders an undercover cop.
Despite initial criticism, the film has since become a cult classic. His performance as Eric Dorf in the four-part television miniseries ‘Holocaust’ in 1978 was well received. The series told the Holocaust story from the perspective of a Jewish family. In 1982, he co-starred in the fantasy horror film “Q” with Candy Clark, David Carradine, and Richard Roundtree. His character was a lowly, paranoid crook with big dreams in life. In 1985, he reprised his role as a detective in the horror film ‘The Stuff,’ in which a strange, yogurt-like substance marketed as ‘the Stuff’ begins eating up the people who consume it.
In 1990, he was cast as detective Ben Stone in the NBC legal drama ‘Law & Order’. His height and steely eyes provided his character with the necessary credibility, and this role became one of his most memorable. He remained with the show until 1994. He appeared as Michael Kelly in ten episodes of the science fiction drama ‘Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal’ from 1997 to 1999 as a member of the recurring cast. In the biographical television film ‘James Dean’ (2001), he played the estranged father of actor James Dean. He portrayed General Dutton in the science fiction television film ‘Deadly Skies’ in 2006.
Moriarty is a semi-professional jazz pianist and singer, as well as a classical composer, in addition to his acting career. He has recorded three jazz albums, the first of which, Reaching Out, was never released. He has regularly performed live with a jazz trio and quintet in both New York City and Vancouver. In a concert review published in the New York Times in 1990, Stephen Holden described Moriarty as “a jazz pianist of considerable skill, an oddball singer with more than one vocal personality, and a writer of eccentric, jivey jazz songs.”
Moriarty is a political activist who describes himself as a “centrist” and a “realist” at times. Moriarty stated his intention to run for president in 2008 in an interview published in the November 2005 issue of Northwest Jazz Profile, but he never officially declared his candidacy. Later, during the 2008 Republican primaries, he supported fellow former Law & Order actor Fred Thompson, as well as Carly Fiorina during the 2016 primary election cycle. He has written numerous political columns for the Enter Stage Right online Journal of Conservatism.
Michael Moriarty’s Net Worth
He has an estimated net worth of 15 million dollars as of 2023.
Michael Moriarty Movies
1. The Last Detail (1973)
2. Shoot It, Black, Shoot It Blue (1974)
3. Bang the Drum Slowly (1973)
4. My Old Man’s Place (1971)
5. Pale Rider (1985)
6. Who’ll Stop the Rain (1978)
7. Hickey & Boggs (1972)
8. Report to the Commissioner (1975)
9. Neverwas (2005)
10. Courage Under Fire (1996)