Biography
Samuel Atkinson "Sam" Waterston (born November 15, 1940) is an American actor and occasional producer and director. Among other roles, he is noted for his Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Sydney Schanberg in 1984's The Killing Fields, and his Golden Globe- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning portrayal of Jack McCoy on the NBC television series Law & Order. He has been nominated for multiple Golden Globe-, Screen Actors Guild-, BAFTA- and Emmy Awards, having starred in over eighty film and ...
Known For
Complete Filmography

The Six Triple Eight
2024
as Franklin Delano Roosevelt
During World War II, the US Army's only all-Black, all-women battalion takes on an impossible mission: sorting through a three-year backlog of 17 mill...

Merchant Ivory
2024
as Self
The first definitive feature documentary to lend new and compelling perspectives on the partnership, both professional and personal, of director James...

A Case for Love
2024
as Self
“A Case for Love” is a heartfelt yet personally challenging movie inspired by the teachings and writings of Bishop Michael Curry, most well-known for ...

Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time
2021
as Self (voice)
A documentary 33 years in the making. A director and friend of Kurt Vonnegut seeks through his archives to create the first film featuring the revolut...

The Man in the Woods
2020
as Headmaster Waldorf
On a snowy night in 1963 Pennsylvania, a boarding school student goes missing in the woods. Her friends, a disgraced quarterback, a shunned ex-cop, an...

Gatsby in Connecticut: The Untold Story
2020
as Self
The summer Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald lived in Connecticut inspired one of the world's most beloved novels: The Great Gatsby. We know the book, we kno...

On the Basis of Sex
2018
as Erwin Griswold
Young lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg teams with her husband Marty to bring a groundbreaking case before the U.S. Court of Appeals and overturn a century o...

The Mayo Clinic
2018
as Charlie Mayo (voice)
The Mayo Clinic tells the story of a unique medical institution that has been called a "Medical Mecca," the "Supreme Court of Medicine," and the "plac...

Jane Fonda in Five Acts
2018
as Self - Actor
Girl next door, activist, so-called traitor, fitness tycoon, Oscar winner: Jane Fonda has lived a life of controversy, tragedy and transformation – an...

Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George's Creators
2017
as Narrator (voice)
We all know Curious George. But what about his creators, Hans and Margret Rey? From fleeing Nazi Germany on handmade bicycles to encounters with exoti...

Dateline: Saigon
2017
as Narrator (voice)
How does a nation slip into war? Dateline-Saigon profiles the controversial reporting of five Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists -The New York Times' ...

Miss Sloane
2016
as George Dupont
An ambitious lobbyist faces off against the powerful gun lobby in an attempt to pass gun control legislation.

Anesthesia
2016
as Prof. Walter Zarrow
Multiple lives intersect in the aftermath of the violent mugging of a Columbia University philosophy professor.

And It Was Good
2015
as Judge Alexander Baas / Doctor / Gravedigger
A couple reunites after a long separation to find themselves in a world that seems designed for their enjoyment and comfort. They immediately get marr...

Dean Smith
2015
as Narrator
Coach, mentor, social activist ...the life and legacy of Dean Smith, North Carolina's legendary basketball coach - who went to 11 Finals Fours and won...

Please Be Normal
2015
as Dad
Victor is a struggling playwright and theater director and his girlfriend Mary is expecting their first child. He has a temporary job in construction ...

The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
2010
as Self
“I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” Who among us has not wanted to open their window and shout that at the top of their lungs? ...

The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
2006
as John Honeyman (segment "A Walk in the Woods")
The Great White Way comes into your living room via this disc of rare performances from some of Broadway's brightest luminaries. Culled from clips fro...

Hammer and Cycle
2004
as Self - Narrator
A group of college students leave New Haven, CT on bicycles and plan a 4,000-mile adventure to benefit Habitat for Humanity.

The Commission
2003
as J. Lee Rankin
Using transcripts from the Warren Commission Report, this film documents the workings of the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination o...

Le Divorce
2003
as Chester Walker
While visiting her sister in Paris, a young woman finds romance and learns her brother-in-law is a philanderer.

The Matthew Shepard Story
2002
as Dennis Shepard
In a senseless act of hatred, openly gay college student Matthew Shepard was murdered in 1998. This critically-acclaimed, moving film recounts the fin...

A House Divided
2000
as David Dickson
In the aftermath of the terrible Civil War which has devastated the South, Amanda America Dixon returns home to find she has become the sole heir to a...
The Unfinished Journey
1999
as Narrator (voice)
A short about American life and history produced for the millennium New Year's Eve celebration.

In Bad Taste
1999
as Self
A documentary on the career of filmmaker John Waters. Featuring interviews with actors and fellow film-makers. The life and death of the actor Divine ...

Moment of Impact: Stories of the Pulitzer Prize Photographs
1999
as Self / Host / Narrator
Moment of Impact: Stories of the Pulitzer Prize Photographs, hosted by Sam Waterston, tells the compelling stories behind some of the world's most mem...

Exiled
1998
as Jack McCoy
NYPD Detective Mike Logan, who was reassigned to Staten Island after punching a corrupt politician, takes on a grisly murder case. When the investigat...

Miracle at Midnight
1998
as Dr. Karl Koster
Gripping historical drama presents a triumphant celebration of the human spirit. The true-life story of how one Danish family risked their lives in a ...

Shadow Conspiracy
1997
as The President
Bobby Bishop is a special assistant to the President of the United States. Accidentally, he meets his friend professor Pochenko on the street. Pochenk...

The Proprietor
1996
as Harry Bancroft
An expatriated French novelist returns to Paris when she learns that her childhood home is being placed on the auction block.

Nixon
1995
as Richard Helms
A look at President Richard M. Nixon—a man carrying the fate of the world on his shoulders while battling the self-destructive demands from within—spa...

The Journey of August King
1995
as Mooney Wright
The Journey of August King is a multi-dimensional drama about a North Carolina farmer in 1815. August King, a widower, is on his way home as he does e...

The Journey of August King
1995
Producer
The Journey of August King is a multi-dimensional drama about a North Carolina farmer in 1815. August King, a widower, is on his way home as he does e...

Amazing Stories: The Movie IV
1995
as (archive footage)
Four tales are compiled from the popular television series. After a death row inmate (Patrick Swayze) is struck by lightning, he discovers he's receiv...

Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
1994
as Tom Wingfield (archive footage)
A study of Tennessee Williams's life and work as a whole, ranging from his youth in Mississippi and in St. Louis to success and acclaim, followed by t...

The Enemy Within
1994
as President William Foster
A officer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff uncovers a planned military coup of the U.S. government and has only one week to prevent the takeover.

Serial Mom
1994
as Eugene Sutphin
Beverly is the perfect happy homemaker, along with her doting husband and two children, but this nuclear family just might explode when her fascinatio...

David's Mother
1994
as John Nils
Sally Goodson has been raising her autistic son David alone since her husband left many years ago. Now a social worker discovers that Sally has been d...

Assault at West Point: The Court-Martial of Johnson Whittaker
1994
as Daniel Chamberlain
The story of Johnson Whittaker, one of the first African-American cadets admitted to West Point. Tied down and beaten by his fellow cadets
I'll Fly Away: Then and Now
1993
as Forrest Bedford
Lilly Taylor returns to her hometown for the first time in thirty years, where she remembers the dramatic events that led to her leaving, and learns w...

A Captive in the Land
1993
as Royce
An American meteorologist attempts to rescue an injured Soviet airman. A killer storm soon maroons them both and the unlikely duo must learn to overco...

Earth and the American Dream
1992
as Reader (voice)
A beautiful and disturbing film recounts America’s story from the environment’s point of view. From the arrival of Columbus to the simple wilderness l...

Mindwalk
1991
as Jack Edwards
On the French island of Mont Saint-Michel, Sonia meets Jack and Tom. Sonia is a Norwegian physicist who abandoned a lucrative career after discovering...

The Man in the Moon
1991
as Matthew Trant
Maureen Trant and her younger sibling Dani share a strong connection, but local boy Court Foster threatens to throw their bond off balance. Dani and C...

Night of 100 Stars III
1990
as Self
A celebrity benefit for The Actors' Fund of America, featuring music, songs, dance and comedy.

Crimes and Misdemeanors
1989
as Ben
A renowned ophthalmologist is desperate to cut off an adulterous relationship…which ends up in murder; and a frustrated documentary filmmaker woos an ...

Welcome Home
1989
as Woody
Jake died in Vietnam; his family mourned him, then moved on. When he reappears, quite alive, the question is, what must he do and how will his family ...

Lantern Hill
1989
as Andrew Stuart
In 1935 Toronto, Jane Stuart's mother has taken ill, and the two of them have temporarily moved in with her rich, snobbish grandmother, where Jane is ...

Terrorist on Trial: The United States vs. Salim Ajami
1988
as Jim Delmore
There is no question that the Arab terrorist portrayed by Robert Davi is guilty of killing five US citizens in Barcelona. Even his lawyers have zero r...

A Walk in the Woods
1988
as John Honeyman
A true story about one US and one USSR delegate who, during 1982 talks in Geneva between USA and USSR on limiting medium-range nukes in Europe, met by...

September
1987
as Peter
After a suicide attempt, Lane has moved into her country house to recuperate. Her best friend, Stephanie, has come to join her for the summer. Lane's ...

Devil's Paradise
1987
as Jones
At the start of the 20th century, a man lives in solitude on an island. One day on the mainland, he saves a young woman from some nasty folk and takes...

Swimming to Cambodia
1987
as Additional cast from 'The Killing Fields' (archive footage)
Spalding Gray sits behind a desk throughout the entire film and recounts his exploits and chance encounters while playing a minor role in the film 'Th...

The Room Upstairs
1987
as Travis Coles
A Boston teacher decides to turn her old home into a boarding house to pull in some much-needed extra money. It turns out her tenants help her in more...

Flagrant désir
1986
as Inspecteur Gerry Morrison
In the Médoc, a young woman is found drowned. An accident, her influential family of winegrowers maintains. Or rather murder, as the American inspecto...

Just Between Friends
1986
as Harry Crandall
Holly and Sandy strike up an instant friendship; they don't know however that they have more in common than they'd like. When tragedy strikes, their r...

The Fifth Missile
1986
as Capt. Allard Renslow
The crew of a Polaris submarine, on a training mission simulating an attack on Russia, is stricken by toxic poisoning. One of the poison's effects is ...

Hannah and Her Sisters
1986
as David (uncredited)
Between two Thanksgivings, Hannah's husband falls in love with her sister Lee, while her hypochondriac ex-husband rekindles his relationship with her ...

Warning Sign
1985
as Cal Morse
An accident occurs in an ultra-secret government biological weapons laboratory spreading a sinister bacteria.
Love Lives On
1985
as Bernie
A 15-year-old girl must choose between continuing her pregnancy and undergoing treatment for her fast-growing cancer.

Finnegan Begin Again
1985
as Paul Broadbent
A schoolteacher in her early 40s, involved in a dead-end love affair with a married mortician, drifts into a relationship with an aging newspaperman.

The Killing Fields
1984
as Sydney Schanberg
New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American ...

The Boy Who Loved Trolls
1984
as Ofoeti
Paul feels life should be an adventure, and sets out on one to prove that Trolls really exist.

Dempsey
1983
as Doc Kearns
Nominated for two primetime Emmy Awards in 1984, this made-for-TV movie follows the true story of American boxer Jack Dempsey, who became a media sens...

In Defense of Kids
1983
as Paul Wilcox
When a female lawyer finds a girl hiding in the back of her car, it starts her thinking, and she decides to give up her job to open up a refuge for ne...

Games Mother Never Taught You
1982
as David Bentells
Hard-working career wife Laura becomes the first female executive in an all-male office and is dismayed to find she now has to learn the rules of the ...

Heaven's Gate
1980
as Frank Canton
Harvard graduate James Averill serves as the sheriff of prosperous Jackson County, Wyo., standing at the center of a conflict between impoverished imm...

Friendly Fire
1980
as C.D.B. Bryan
In March 1970, a U.S. Army officer arrived at the Iowa farm of Peg and Gene Mullen and informed them that their son Michael had been killed in Vietnam...

Hopscotch
1980
as Jack Cutter
When CIA operative Miles Kendig deliberately lets KGB agent Yaskov get away, his boss threatens to retire him. Kendig beats him to it, however, destro...

Sweet William
1980
as William McClusky
William McClusky (Sam Waterston) is a dashing and eccentric Scotsman whose charms rapidly overwhelm the sweet and naive Ann Walton (Jenny Agutter), bu...

Eagle's Wing
1979
as White Bull
Two men, an aging Native American and a ne'er-do-well trapper from North America, race to claim the stallion Eagle's Wing in antebellum Mexico, meetin...

Interiors
1978
as Mike
When Eve, an interior designer, is deserted by her husband of many years, Arthur, the emotionally glacial relationships of the three grown-up daughter...

Capricorn One
1977
as Lt. Col. Peter Willis
In order to protect the reputation of the American space program, a team of NASA administrators turn the first Mars mission into a phony Mars landing....

Sweet Revenge
1976
as Le Clerq
A young woman with a long rap sheet who steals cars for a living is befriended by a public defender who tries to steer her straight. But her goal is t...

Journey into Fear
1975
as Mr. Graham
U.S geologist discovers something about Oil that proves VERY threatening to the Turkish and Arab business people.

Rancho Deluxe
1975
as Cecil Colson
Two drifters, of widely varying backgrounds, rustle cattle and try to avoid being caught in contemporary Montana.

Reflections of Murder
1974
as Michael Elliott
The wife and mistress of the abusive headmaster of a boy's school plot and carry out his murder. They dump his body in the murky swimming pool at the ...

The Great Gatsby
1974
as Nick Carraway
Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner now living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the mysterious past and lavish lifestyle of his neighbor, t...

The Glass Menagerie
1973
as Tom Wingfield
Amanda Wingfield dominates her children with her faded gentility and exaggerated tales of her Southern belle past. Her son plans escape; her daughter ...

Much Ado About Nothing
1973
as Benedick
Don Pedro and his men (Teddy Roosevelt Roughriders) have returned from the wars. After Beatrice turns down his proposal, Don Pedro decides to matchmak...

Mahoney's Last Stand
1972
as Felix
"A truly remarkable performance!" - Charlie Chaplin In this rare and virtually unseen film we follow the exploits of Leroy Mahoney (Alexis Kanner) as...

Savages
1972
as James, the Limping Man
A tribe of primitive "mudpeople" encounter a croquet ball, rolling through their forest. Following it, they find themselves on a vast, deserted Long I...

Who Killed Mary Whats'ername?
1971
as Alex Monte
A prostitute is murdered on the streets of a tough, low-income neighborhood. A diabetic retired boxer who knew her is appalled by the lack of interest...

Cover Me Babe
1970
as Cameraman
Student filmmaker lets nothing stand in the way of his getting a studio contract.

Three
1969
as Taylor
Two college friends, traveling in Europe, find themselves rivals for the attentions of a mysterious woman.

Generation
1969
as Desmond
Newlyweds shock the bride's father with plans for natural childbirth in a Greenwich Village loft.

Fitzwilly
1967
as Oliver
When Miss Vicki's father dies, she becomes the world's greatest philanthropist. Unfortunately, she is flat broke! Her loyal butler, Claude Fitzwilliam...

The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean
1966
as Andy
Written, directed, and self-financed by Juleen Compton, The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean is the story of a clairvoyant teenage girl, Norma Jean (Sharon ...

Rain Falls from Earth: Surviving Cambodia's Darkest Hour
N/A
as Self (voice)
On April 17, 1975, the face of Cambodia would forever be changed. As Khmer Rouge soldiers marched into the capital city of Phnom Penh, the unsuspectin...