Dann Florek is a stage, television and film actor whose career began in the 1970s. His longest running role has been the character Captain Donald Cragen in the show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. His career has predominantly involved crime shows, such as L.A. Law and Law & Order, but he has taken other more varied roles in movies and TV mini-series.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0282648/

Though Florek has been acting in TV and film for three decades, he has not garnered awards. However, he was nominated for a PRISM Award in 2010. The nomination was for Best Performance in a Drama Episode for his work on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.http://www.aceshowbiz.com/celebrity/dann_florek/awards.html

Ezekiel Dann Florek was born on May 1, 1950 in Flat Rock, Michigan. Florek was a math and physics major at Eastern Michigan University until a drama scholarship prompted him to switch majors. He eventually moved to New York to train at Juilliard, where he would become part of the school's acting company. During the 1970s, he appeared in a number of stage productions, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, Death of a Salesman, Strange Snow and The Three Cuckolds.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0282648/bio http://www.starpulse.com/Actors/Florek,_Dann/Biography/

Florek moved on to TV and film acting in the early 1980s. He started off with minor roles on TV shows like Hill Street Blues, Matlock and 21 Jump Street, while appearing in films such as Angel Heart and Sweet Liberty. He received his first big break in 1988, when he joined the show L.A. Law. He was cast in Law & Order just two years later.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0282648/<ref> <ref>http://www.tv.com/dann-florek/person/1361/summary.html?tag=page_nav;subtabs;summary

In 1994, the actor appeared in The Flinstones, a live-action interpretation of the cartoon show which starred John Goodman and Rosie O'Donnell. That same year he joined the cast of the Hardball TV series for several episodes. In 1999, he was asked to join the cast of a Law & Order spin-off, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0282648/

• 1985: Hill Street Blues (TV)
• 1988: Matlock (TV)
• 1988: 21 Jump Street (TV)
• 1988 - 1993: L.A. Law (TV)
• 1994: The Flinstones
• 1994: Getting Even with Dad
• 1994: Hardball (TV)
• 1990 - 1997: Rosanne (TV)
• 1998: From the Earth to the Moon (TV)
• 1990 - 2004: Law & Order (TV)
• 1999 - 2010: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV)

"I got a phone call, and Dick [Wolf] said 'I want to bring back the Cragen character.' I said if he gets more to do and he's a little edgier - that he's been through some things and we find out what's led him to the Special Victims Unit - then I'm game." &mdash Dann Florek, Police Sketch inteviewhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-8rH2xwxDM

"You know, the statute of limitations on rape is five years. It's harder to get out of a parking ticket then a rape." &mdash Dann Florek, Police Sketch interviewhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-8rH2xwxDM