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Acclaimed actor Sam Waterston, who has portrayed Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy on "Law & Order" for 16 seasons, will return with the series' 20th season in his role, as the new District Attorney.

Waterston is a six-time Emmy Award nominee (three times for "Law & Order" and three more for "I'll Fly Away") who won the award for hosting the 10-part NBC informational series "Lost Civilizations." He also received a Golden Globe for "I'll Fly Away" and earned the 1999 Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance as McCoy.

In addition, Waterston earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his performance in "The Killing Fields," and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Most Promising Newcomer for his portrayal of Nick Carraway in "The Great Gatsby." He has also been nominated for several BAFTA Awards.

Waterston's other notable feature credits include: the Woody Allen films "Interiors," "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors"; John Waters' "Serial Mom"; "Hopscotch" and "Heaven's Gate"; Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" (with Katharine Hepburn) and "Eagle's Wing" with Martin Sheen and Harvey Keitel. He also starred opposite Jeff Bridges in Tom McGuane's "Rancho Deluxe" and with Reese Witherspoon in "Man in the Moon."

In addition, Waterston starred opposite Jennifer Beals and LisaGay Hamilton in the television movie "A House Divided" (which he also produced), and he portrayed Abraham Lincoln opposite Mary Tyler Moore in Gore Vidal's miniseries "Lincoln." In addition, Waterston appeared in the NBC movie "The Matthew Shepard Story," which co-starred Stockard Channing. Recent films include "The Commission" with Martin Landau and "Le Divorce" with Kate Hudson, Glenn Close and Channing.

The hiatuses between seasons of "Law and Order" have seen him at work on stage and on screen. In 2000, Waterston appeared in the Syracuse Stage production of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey into Night." The critically praised production also starred his son, James Waterston ("Another Time," "The Lady and the Clarinet"), as well as Elizabeth Franz ("Death of a Salesman") and John Slattery. He starred in the world premiere production of David Rabe's "The Black Monk" at the Yale Repertory Theater in 2003 and, in 2005, as "Henry Carr" in Tom Stoppard's "Travesties" at the Longwharf Theater in New Haven.

Waterston's other stage work includes myriad Broadway and off-Broadway productions including many plays with the New York Shakespeare Festival, such as "As You Like It," "Cymbeline," "Measure for Measure," "Hamlet," and "The Doll's House," with Liv Ullmann. He earned a Tony Award nomination for his role as Abe Lincoln in "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York, as well as an Obie and Drama Desk Award for his portrayal of Benedick in "Much Ado About Nothing." In 2004 Waterston returned to The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park in a reprise production of "Much Ado About Nothing" and this time portrayed "Leonato" opposite his daughter, Elisabeth ("The Prince and Me") starring in the "Hero" role.

Over the 2006 hiatus, he co-starred with Judy Davis in the premiere episode of the anthology series "Masters of Science Fiction" titled "A Clean Escape," directed by Academy Award-winner Mark Rydell.

This season, he returned again to Shakespeare in the Park, playing Polonius to Michael Stuhlbarg's Hamlet.

Waterston lives in Connecticut with his wife. Their children, James, Elisabeth, and Katherine, are a new generation of ever more successful actors, playing important roles on stage in New York, as well as on film and television. Their son Graham is a writer and director. They have two grandchildren.