Donald Cragen
Encyclopedia
Donald "Don" Cragen is a fictional character in the police procedural
and legal drama
television series Law & Order
and its spinoff Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
, played by Dann Florek
.
from its premiere in 1999 to the present.
in Vietnam
, Cragen began his career as a homicide
detective in the 1960s with partner Max Greevey (George Dzundza
), gradually rising up through the ranks to police captain and commanding the 27th Detective Squad. At some point, Cragen graduated from St. Raymond's University, a Catholic
university known for its basketball team (SVU: "Sophomore Jinx"). As revealed in the episode "Prescription for Death
", Cragen was an alcoholic
for much of his early career, but went sober
after pulling his service revolver on a taxi driver in a drunken rage when he was still a detective. He does not touch another drop, even following the death of his wife, Marge, in a plane crash. He occasionally opens up about his recovery; in the SVU episode "Slaves", for example, he admits to a police psychiatrist that he is daily tempted to relapse in order to escape the horrors he sees every day in his job. In season 11, Cragen reveals that he has been sober for 20 years although in the first Law & Order episode he mentions being sober since the mid seventies. In the season two premiere, he tells ADA Cabot
that he has become apathetic towards city politics and does not vote.
In Law & Order Cragen mentions having a child, but during his time on SVU, it is stated on more than one occasion that he has no children.
In 1991, Cragen is investigated by internal affairs
for corruption
; during the investigation to prove his innocence, he discovers that he is being framed by his former captain and mentor, whom he turns in. In another episode, his former partner and longtime friend Greevey is murder
ed.
Cragen is removed from the series following the episode "Benevolence"; it is later explained that he had transferred to the Anti-Corruption Task Force. He is succeeded as squad commander by Lt. Anita Van Buren
(S. Epatha Merkerson
). Cragen is seen in this new role in the fifth season episode "Bad Faith".
, Cragen next interacts with the 27th Precinct while attempting to arrest Mafia
boss Don Giancarlo Uzielli for the murders of 15 people. During that investigation, Cragen, now the head of the Anti-Corruption Task Force, discovers that there is not only a cop in the 27th precinct on Uzielli's payroll, but that his former detective from homicide, Mike Logan
(Chris Noth
), is interfering with the investigation of the Don by investigating a murder of his own. With Logan's help, Cragen discovers the identity of the corrupt officer: his former detective, and trusted friend, Tony Profaci (John Fiore
).
, in which he heads a bureau dedicated to solving sex crimes.
In a 2001 episode, Cragen finds a kidnapped
boy he and Greevey had been assigned to find in 1991 while investigating a corrupt adoption agency. Cragen and his detectives later determined that the wife of the boy's biological father killed his mother and gave the baby to the adoption agency, where he was given a home. In the end, the boy's biological father won custody of him.
In the season 5 episode "Criminal", a man whom Cragen arrested in 1976 for murder is now a criminology
professor who is being framed for a crime. Cragen takes on the case personally only to discover that a man can change after committing a horrible crime.
In the Season 9 opener Cragen is forced to transfer to another department (the office of the Chief of Detectives), ceding control to the newly-promoted Sergeant John Munch
(Richard Belzer
). He returns by the end of the episode when Munch allows a suspect suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder
to be released into her sister's care; that night the suspect, who is faking the disorder, kills her parents.
In season 11, he is suspended for 10 days, and is told that any further trouble concerning his unit will cost him his job.
In season 13, Episode Russian Brides, Cragen reveals that he and his wife had always wanted a child, but to no success. After his wife suffered a miscarriage, he says he attempted to adopt a child, but could not due to being too busy.
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...
and legal drama
Legal drama
A legal drama is a work of dramatic fiction about crime and civil litigation. Subtypes of legal dramas include courtroom dramas and legal thrillers, and come in all forms, including novels, television shows, and films. Legal drama sometimes overlap with crime drama, most notably in the case of Law...
television series Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
and its spinoff Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...
, played by Dann Florek
Dann Florek
Ezekial Dann Florek , professional name Dann Florek, is an American actor and director.-Early life:Florek was born in Flat Rock, Michigan. He attended Eastern Michigan University, but never graduated...
.
Character appearances
Florek originally portrayed the character from 1990 to 1993 in the original Law & Order. He went on to reprise his role on Law & Order: Special Victims UnitLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...
from its premiere in 1999 to the present.
In Law & Order
After service as a Green BeretGreen Berets
A green beret was the headgear of the British Commandos of World War II. Certain military organisations still wear green berets because they have regimental or unit histories that form a connection with the British Commandos of World War II....
in Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, Cragen began his career as a homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
detective in the 1960s with partner Max Greevey (George Dzundza
George Dzundza
George Dzundza is an American television and film actor.-Personal life:Dzundza was born in Rosenheim, Germany, to a Ukrainian father and Polish mother who were forced into factory labour by the Nazis. He spent the first few years of his life in displaced persons camps with his parents and one...
), gradually rising up through the ranks to police captain and commanding the 27th Detective Squad. At some point, Cragen graduated from St. Raymond's University, a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
university known for its basketball team (SVU: "Sophomore Jinx"). As revealed in the episode "Prescription for Death
Prescription for Death
Prescription for Death was the first episode on the long-running crime drama television series Law & Order. It was aired on September 13, 1990. Although it was the first episode of the series to air, it was not originally intended to be the pilot. "Everybody's Favorite Bagman", which aired on...
", Cragen was an alcoholic
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
for much of his early career, but went sober
Sobriety
Sobriety is the condition of not having any measurable levels, or effects from, alcohol or other drugs that alter ones mood or behaviors. According to WHO "Lexicon of alcohol and drug terms..." sobriety is continued abstinence from alcohol and psychoactive drug use...
after pulling his service revolver on a taxi driver in a drunken rage when he was still a detective. He does not touch another drop, even following the death of his wife, Marge, in a plane crash. He occasionally opens up about his recovery; in the SVU episode "Slaves", for example, he admits to a police psychiatrist that he is daily tempted to relapse in order to escape the horrors he sees every day in his job. In season 11, Cragen reveals that he has been sober for 20 years although in the first Law & Order episode he mentions being sober since the mid seventies. In the season two premiere, he tells ADA Cabot
Cabot
-People:* Bruce Cabot , American actor* John Cabot , Italian navigator and explorer* Godfrey Lowell Cabot , founder of the Cabot Corporation, philanthropist, and aviation pioneer...
that he has become apathetic towards city politics and does not vote.
In Law & Order Cragen mentions having a child, but during his time on SVU, it is stated on more than one occasion that he has no children.
In 1991, Cragen is investigated by internal affairs
Internal affairs (law enforcement)
The internal affairs division of a law enforcement agency investigates incidents and plausible suspicions of lawbreaking and professional misconduct attributed to officers on the force...
for corruption
Police corruption
Police corruption is a specific form of police misconduct designed to obtain financial benefits, other personal gain, or career advancement for a police officer or officers in exchange for not pursuing, or selectively pursuing, an investigation or arrest....
; during the investigation to prove his innocence, he discovers that he is being framed by his former captain and mentor, whom he turns in. In another episode, his former partner and longtime friend Greevey is murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed.
Cragen is removed from the series following the episode "Benevolence"; it is later explained that he had transferred to the Anti-Corruption Task Force. He is succeeded as squad commander by Lt. Anita Van Buren
Anita Van Buren
Lt. Anita Van Buren is a fictional character on NBC's long running police procedural and legal drama television series Law & Order, portrayed by S. Epatha Merkerson. By episode count, she is the longest-running character on the show...
(S. Epatha Merkerson
S. Epatha Merkerson
S. Epatha Merkerson is an American film, stage, and television actress. She has won a Golden Globe, Emmy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Obie Award and four NAACP Image Awards. She has also received two Tony Award nominations...
). Cragen is seen in this new role in the fifth season episode "Bad Faith".
Outside Law & Order
As portrayed in the 1998 TV movie Exiled: A Law & Order MovieExiled: A Law & Order Movie
Exiled: A Law & Order Movie is a 1998 television film that is based on the Law & Order police procedural and legal drama television series; it originally aired on NBC. Written by Charles Kipps and Chris Noth, the movie revolves around Noth's Det. Mike Logan character...
, Cragen next interacts with the 27th Precinct while attempting to arrest Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
boss Don Giancarlo Uzielli for the murders of 15 people. During that investigation, Cragen, now the head of the Anti-Corruption Task Force, discovers that there is not only a cop in the 27th precinct on Uzielli's payroll, but that his former detective from homicide, Mike Logan
Mike Logan (Law & Order)
Michael "Mike" Logan is a fictional character in the police procedural and legal drama television series Law & Order franchise, played by Chris Noth.-History in the franchise:...
(Chris Noth
Chris Noth
Christopher David "Chris" Noth is an American actor. He is known for long-running television roles as Det. Mike Logan on the police procedural and legal drama television series, Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and as Big on Sex and the City. For the latter role, he has been...
), is interfering with the investigation of the Don by investigating a murder of his own. With Logan's help, Cragen discovers the identity of the corrupt officer: his former detective, and trusted friend, Tony Profaci (John Fiore
John Fiore (actor)
John Fiore is an American actor from Somerville, Massachusetts.Fiore is probably best known for his recurring role as Detective Tony Profaci on the long-running NBC crime drama Law & Order...
).
In SVU
In 1999, the character appeared in the spinoff Law & Order: Special Victims UnitLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...
, in which he heads a bureau dedicated to solving sex crimes.
In a 2001 episode, Cragen finds a kidnapped
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
boy he and Greevey had been assigned to find in 1991 while investigating a corrupt adoption agency. Cragen and his detectives later determined that the wife of the boy's biological father killed his mother and gave the baby to the adoption agency, where he was given a home. In the end, the boy's biological father won custody of him.
In the season 5 episode "Criminal", a man whom Cragen arrested in 1976 for murder is now a criminology
Criminology
Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society...
professor who is being framed for a crime. Cragen takes on the case personally only to discover that a man can change after committing a horrible crime.
In the Season 9 opener Cragen is forced to transfer to another department (the office of the Chief of Detectives), ceding control to the newly-promoted Sergeant John Munch
John Munch
Sergeant John Munch is a fictional character played by actor Richard Belzer. Munch first appeared on Homicide: Life on the Street. Upon that series' cancellation, the character was transplanted to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the first spin-off of the Law & Order franchise...
(Richard Belzer
Richard Belzer
Richard Jay Belzer is an American stand-up comedian, author, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as John Munch, which he has portrayed as a regular cast member on the NBC police drama series Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as in guest...
). He returns by the end of the episode when Munch allows a suspect suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder
Dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities , each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment....
to be released into her sister's care; that night the suspect, who is faking the disorder, kills her parents.
In season 11, he is suspended for 10 days, and is told that any further trouble concerning his unit will cost him his job.
In season 13, Episode Russian Brides, Cragen reveals that he and his wife had always wanted a child, but to no success. After his wife suffered a miscarriage, he says he attempted to adopt a child, but could not due to being too busy.