This Is Why All These Actors Had To Leave Law & Order

Though Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has surpassed its predecessor's longevity, the original Law & Order still ranks as one of the longest-running primetime series in American television history; the police procedural aired new episodes on NBC across the span of two decades (via NBC). 

Of course, with any TV show that runs that long, you're bound to see some turnover, and Law & Order cycled through dozens of series regulars over its 20-season run. In fact, by the time the show ended in 2010, not a single original cast member was left. (The longest-serving actor at the time was S. Epatha Merkerson, who started playing Lieutenant Anita Van Buren in season 4.)

Many of the Law & Order stars left the show simply because they were ready for new projects, while other actors left because of behind-the-scenes issues. To quote the Law & Order intro voiceover, these are their stories...

The actor behind Sergeant Phil Carreta, Mike Logan's partner after Max Greevey's death, lasted little more than one season on Law & Order. Paul Sorvino left in 1992, midway through season 2, with his character getting shot in the line of duty and transferred to a desk job.

The Orlando Sentinel reported at the time that Sorvino exited the role because he wanted to pursue a singing career. And sure enough, nearly a decade and a half later, the actor starred in the New York City Opera's 2006 production of The Most Happy Fella. "The part is close to two octaves here and there," he told TheaterMania at the time. "In my voice, I have three octaves. I don't find the range daunting, but to do it right is daunting. I want to do it right."

More recently, Sorvino guest-starred in episodes of Elementary, The Goldbergs, and Grandfathered. And in 2019, he started starring in the Epix crime drama Godfather of Harlem, playing real-life crime boss Frank Costello.

Detective Mike Logan continued crime-solving until the end of Law & Order's fifth season in 1995, when actor Chris Noth took his leave of the program. According to the Associated Press, producer Dick Wolf said Noth was due for a "huge" raise that would be "impossible to grant."

However, the head of the Noth's management company said the actor was ready for a film career anyway. "He's really sorry that they couldn't get it together, but he's had five great years, and his feeling is that it's time to move on," they shared. Logan exits the Law & Order plot when he punches a politician and gets transferred to a job in Staten Island, though Noth later reprised the part in the TV movie Law & Order: Exile and the spinoff Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Noth didn't rest on his laurels after leaving Law & Order, though he's known more for his TV roles than his film work. He played love interest Mr. Big on the HBO rom-com Sex and the City, for example, and philandering husband Peter Florrick on the CBS legal drama The Good Wife.

Jill Hennessy played Assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid from season 4 to season 6 of Law & Order, leaving the show in 1996. In the plot, Kincaid dies in a car accident as she drives a drunk Lennie Briscoe home from a bar.

In a 2006 interview with The Morning Call, Hennessy said the role of an ADA on Law & Order is "limited" since the characters are supposed to keep their personal feelings out of the job. "One of the reasons you see actors moving on is that it's so easy to become typecast," she explained. "If they see you in that one light, people presume that's all you can do. I was getting that from day one, with casting directors basically thinking, 'She can't do comedy. She can't do emotional work.'" Hennessy added that actors usually strive for variety in their career, as opposed to staying in one genre.

Hennessy later led the cast of the NBC procedural Crossing Jordan before taking parts in the TV shows Madam Secretary and Shots Fired. In 2019, she started starring as Jenny Rohr in the Showtime drama City on a Hill.

Steven Hill, who was already famous for the TV series Mission: Impossible by the time he landed his Law & Order part, played District Attorney Adam Schiff on the NBC show. He bid his castmates goodbye in 2000, with his character leaving his job at the end of season 10 to coordinate commemorations of the Holocaust Project. Producer Dick Wolf later told Newsday that Hill, then 78, left the show because he was tired and didn't want to commute from the suburbs into Manhattan every week.

Law & Order ended up being Hill's final onscreen acting role; the actor died in 2016 at the age of 94. "Steven was not only one of the truly great actors of his generation, he was one of the most intelligent people I have ever met," Wolf told Variety at the time, eulogizing the late TV star. "He is also the only actor I've known who consistently tried to cut his own lines. He will be missed, but fortunately, he can be seen ubiquitously on Law & Order reruns."

Jerry Orbach — then famous for his Broadway turns in the musicals Guys and Dolls, Chicago, and 42nd Street – joined Law & Order in season 3 to replace Paul Sorvino. Orbach played Detective Lennie Briscoe, staying on the show until 2004, when the character retired at the end of the 14th season. That retirement was short-lived, however; Orbach reprised the part in the first two episodes of the short-lived spinoff show Law & Order: Trial by Jury.

Before his Law & Order exit, Orbach told his colleagues he was battling prostate cancer, and it was that disease that led to his death at age 69 later that year, according to the Los Angeles Times. Producer Dick Wolf paid tribute to the veteran actor in a statement to the Times. "I'm immensely saddened by the passing of not only a friend and colleague, but a legendary figure of 20th century show business who was a star of screen, stage, and television," he shared. "He was one of the most honored performers of his generation. His loss is irreplaceable."

The end of Law & Order's 16th season in 2006 was also the end of Dennis Farina's tenure on the procedural. Farina had joined the show as Detective Joe Fontana in season 15, following the death of Jerry Orbach.

As Fontana was sent off to retirement, Farina's spokesperson told the Today that the actor wanted to pursue other offers and to continue work with his production company. According to IndieWire, Farina's production company, You're Faded Films, helped produce his 2011 film The Last Rites of Joe May. The actor's other post-Law & Order roles include parts in the movies Bottle Shock, What Happens in Vegas, and Authors Anonymous. Farina also had a starring role in the HBO drama Luck.

Farina died in 2013 at age 67 after suffering a blood clung in his lung, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "I was stunned and saddened to hear about Dennis' unexpected passing this morning," producer Dick Wolf lamented. "The Law & Order family extends sympathy and condolences to his family. He was a great guy."

The late Fred Thompson was still a United States senator — a Republican representing Tennessee — when he joined the cast of Law & Order in 2002 at the start of the show's 13th season. After five seasons of playing District Attorney Arthur Branch, Thompson left the show at the end of season 17 in 2007. The reason? He was preparing to run for U.S. president. In an interview with Fox News at the time, the actor said his Law & Order exit showed the "seriousness" with which he was running.

Thompson's shot at the Oval Office ended the following year, however; he withdrew from the race in 2008 after a series of poor primary and caucus results, according to the The Post and Courier. Afterward, Thompson returned to his screen career, appearing in the films Secretariat and 90 Minutes in Heaven, and the TV shows The Good Wife and Allegiance.

Thompson died in 2015 after a recurrence of lymphoma, according to a family statement obtained by The New York Times. "Fred was the same man on the floor of the Senate, the movie studio, or the town square of Lawrenceburg, [Tennessee]," his family added.