These are their stories: Sam Waterston to leave ‘Law & Order’ later this month after 400 episodes

By MARK KENNEDY
AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Sam Waterston, who has played the spiky, no-nonsense district attorney on “Law & Order” since the mid-1990s, is stepping down. NBC says Friday that the last episode for Waterston’s Jack McCoy will be Feb. 22. He has been in more than 400 episodes of the police drama, earning a Screen Actors Guild Award and Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for the role. Tony Goldwyn has been cast as the new district attorney. McCoy was a brilliant, hard-charging, angel of justice, prone to bouts of moral outrage and slicing right to the truth. Bushy-browed Waterston began his acting career as a stage actor in New York with a number of Shakespeare roles.