Trivia

Was good friends with Bruce Lee.

He has appeared in 368 episodes of Law & Order (1990), more than anyone other than S. Epatha Merkerson.

Direct descendant of Richard Warren and wife Elizabeth Walker, Mayflower passengers.

All four of his children followed him into the show business industry: Elisabeth Waterston, Katherine Waterston and James Waterston are actors, and Graham Waterston is a writer/director.

He has played the same character (Jack McCoy) in four different series: Law & Order (1990), Homicide: Life on the Street (1993), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) and Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005).

He has appeared in five films with Stockard Channing: David's Mother (1994), The Room Upstairs (1987), Sweet Revenge (2001), The Matthew Shepard Story (2002) and The Divorce (2003). In the last two, they played husband and wife.

He attended Groton Prep School and then entered Yale University on a scholarship (1958) where he studied French and History and graduated with a Bachelor's degree (1962). He spent his junior year studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. After failing to quash the acting bug, he studied at the American Actors Workshop in Paris. After leaving Yale, he spent some months at the Clinton Playhouse. He resides in Connecticut with his wife.

He has played five U.S. Presidents: Abraham Lincoln three times, Lincoln (1988), The Civil War (1990) (voice only), and "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" on Broadway (1994); Thomas Jefferson (voice only) in Thomas Jefferson (1997); fictional President William Foster in The Enemy Within (1994); Theodore Roosevelt in Freedom to Speak (1983); and the unnamed fictional President in Shadow Conspiracy (1997).

Forrest Bedford, Waterston's character on I'll Fly Away (1991), was ranked #17 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" [20 June 2004 issue].

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 7040 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on January 7, 2010.

He has the distinction of starring on two television series in which he played a prosecutor: District Attorney Forrest Bedford in I'll Fly Away (1991) and District Attorney Jack McCoy in Law & Order (1990).

His father was an immigrant, whose own father, George Waterston, was Scottish (from Midlothian) and whose own mother, Ellen Louise Giles, was English (from Middlesex).

He has appeared in episodes of four different series with Jerry Orbach: Law & Order (1990), Homicide: Life on the Street (1993), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) and Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005).

Eight cousin three times removed of George Bush and four times removed of George W. Bush and eighth cousin of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Ranked #23 on Tropopkin magazine's Top 25 Most Intriguing People [Issue #100].

He has appeared in four films directed by Woody Allen: Interiors (1978), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), September (1987) and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).

Shared a $25-a-month Greenwich Village apartment in New York City with friend and fellow actor Tom Ligon in the early 1960s.

Both he and his Rancho Deluxe (1975) and Heaven's Gate (1980) co-star Jeff Bridges were Oscar nominated for Best Actor in 1984, for The Killing Fields (1984) and Starman (1984) respectively.

Winner of the 2003 Richard Nelson Current Award of Achievement, awarded annually by the Lincoln Forum.

In both The Enemy Within (1994) and Shadow Conspiracy (1997), he played fictional U.S. Presidents who were under serious threat of being removed from office.

Was nominated for Broadway's 1994 Tony Award as Best Actor (Play) for playing Abraham Lincoln in a revival of Robert E. Sherwood's "Abe Lincoln in Illinois".

He has appeared in episodes of four different series with Richard Belzer: Law & Order (1990), Homicide: Life on the Street (1993), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) and Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005).

He has appeared in four films with Mia Farrow: The Great Gatsby (1974), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), September (1987) and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). Of these four, only The Great Gatsby (1974) was not directed by Woody Allen. It was directed by Jack Clayton.

Sam's parents married on July 6, 1935 in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Sam's father, George Chychele Waterston, aka G. Chychele Waterston or George C. Waterston (b. Leith, Scotland, 20 May 1904, d. Sharon, Connecticut, 13 May 1995), was a diplomat and linguist. He was an immigrant, whose own father, George Waterston, was Scottish (from Midlothian), and whose own mother, Ellen Louise Giles, was English (from Middlesex). Sam's mother, Alice Tucker Atkinson (b. Brookline, Massachusetts, 10 December 1905, d. Sharon, Connecticut, 29 November 1993), was the daughter of musician Robert Whitman Atkinson (b. Heath Street, Brookline, Massachusetts, 14 December 1868, d. Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, 21 August 1934), Harvard 1891, and of wife (m. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 5 March 1904) Elizabeth Bispham Page (b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 27 March 1875, d. Middleborough, Massachusetts, January 1962). Sam's mother was a Mayflower descendant.

Once resided in a house previously owned by New Yorker writer James Thurber.

Is the official spokesperson for TD Waterhouse, the online investment company. He appears in most of their television commercials (2003/2004).

Father of four children: Elisabeth Waterston, Katherine Waterston and Graham Waterston with his wife, Lynn Louisa Woodruff and James Waterston with his ex-wife, Barbara Rutledge-Johns.

Voices the television advertisement for "The Nation", a political commentary magazine with a progressive viewpoint. Included is the line "The Nation gives you that liberal media slant you can't get anywhere else.".

Has a summer home in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts.

Received an honorary degree from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut (2001).

His biggest family collaboration was on the movie And It Was Good (2015) which was written and directed by his son Graham Waterston, executive co-produced by daughter Katherine Waterston and co-starred his children Elisabeth Waterston and James Waterston.

Father-in-law of Louis Cancelmi.

He has appeared in episodes of three different television series with Jesse L. Martin: Law & Order (1990), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) and Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005).

He has appeared in two films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: The Killing Fields (1984) and Hannah and Her Sisters (1986).

His three most beloved movies of all time are, Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), Fearless Little Soldier (1952) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962), due to the memorable performances of Alec Guinness, Gérard Philipe and Peter O'Toole, roles Sam would dearly love to have played himself.

Received an honorary degree (Doctor of Fine Arts) from the University of the South on October 12, 2004.

When Elisabeth Waterston played his daughter in Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" in Central Park's Delacorte Theater in 2004, it was at this very same venue, in the same play, that Sam first met wife-to-be Lynn Louisa Woodruff on a blind date in 1972.