In 1989, Moriarty starred in the HBO production Tailspin: Behind the Korean Airliner Tragedy, which dramatized the Soviet Union's shoot-down of Korean Air Lines flight 007 in 1983. He portrayed U.S. Air ForceMajor Hank Daniels, who was largely ignored (if not ridiculed) for showing how the ill-fated airliner had strayed off course into air space known by the Soviets to be used by U.S. Air Force electronic surveillance planes as they approached Soviet air space.
From 1990 to 1994, Moriarty starred as Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone on Law & Order. He left the show in 1994, alleging that his departure was a result of his threatening a lawsuit against then-Attorney General Janet Reno, who had cited Law & Order as offensively violent. Moriarty criticized Reno's comment and claimed that she wanted to censor not only shows such as Law & Order, but also such fare as Murder, She Wrote. He later accused Law & Order executive producer Dick Wolf of not taking his concerns seriously and claimed that Wolf and other network executives were "caving in" to Reno's "demands" on the issue of TV violence. On September 20, 1994, on The Howard Stern Show, he made an offer to NBC, claiming that he would return to his role on the show if Wolf was fired. Moriarty published a full-page advertisement in a Hollywood trade magazine calling upon fellow artists to stand up with him against attempts to censor TV show content. He subsequently wrote and published The Gift of Stern Angels, his account of this time in his life.[9] In the fictional Law & Orderuniverse, Ben Stone resigns from the D.A.'s office in 1994 after a witness in one of his cases is murdered. The February 7, 2018, episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit shows Sam Waterston's character, Jack McCoy, delivering a eulogy at Stone's funeral.[10]
Wolf and others working on Law & Order contradict Moriarty's account of how he left the series. On November 18, 1993, Moriarty and Wolf, along with other television executives, met with Reno to dissuade her from supporting any law that would censor the show. Wolf said that Moriarty overreacted to any effect the law was likely to have on the show. Law & Order producers claim they were forced to remove Moriarty from the series because of "erratic behavior", an example of which reportedly happened during the filming of the episode "Breeder", when, according to the episode's director Arthur Forney, Moriarty began muttering to himself with a vacant look in his eyes, was unable to deliver his lines with a straight face, and had to be taken to a doctor. Series and network officials deny any connection between his departure and Janet Reno. Wolf also denies that the show has become less violent, graphic, or controversial since 1994.[11]
In addition to his acting career, Moriarty is a semiprofessional jazz pianist and singer, as well as a classical composer. He has recorded three jazz albums (although the first, Reaching Out, went unreleased). He has regularly performed live in both New York City and Vancouver with a jazz trio and quintet. In a 1990 concert review, New York Times reviewer Stephen Holden called Moriarty "a jazz pianist of considerable skill, an oddball singer with more than one vocal personality, and a writer of eccentric, jivey jazz songs."[12]
Moriarty is politically active, describing himself as a "centrist" and sometimes as a "realist".[13] Moriarty announced his intention to run for the presidency in 2008 in an interview in the November 2005 issue of Northwest Jazz Profile, but he never formally declared his candidacy.[14] He later endorsed fellow former Law & Order actor Fred Thompson for the presidency during the 2008 Republican primaries,[15] as well as Carly Fiorina during the 2016 primary election cycle.[16] He has been a frequent contributor of numerous political columns to the Enter Stage Right online Journal of Conservatism.
Personal life
Shortly after leaving Law & Order, Moriarty moved to Canada, declaring himself a political exile. He lived for a time in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he was granted Canadian citizenship, living in Toronto before settling in Vancouver.[17]
In 2006, in the blog Enter Stage Right Moriarty wrote that he was a "very bad drunk", but as of 2004, he had been sober for two years.[18]
