Donald Cragen

Capt. Donald Cragen
Law & Order character
First appearance	"Prescription for Death" (L&O) "Payback" (SVU)
Last appearance	"Benevolence" (L&O) N/A (SVU)
Portrayed by	Dann Florek
Time on show	1990–1993 (L&O) 1998 (Movie) 1999–Present (SVU)
Preceded by	None (L&O) None (SVU)
Succeeded by	Anita Van Buren (L&O) incumbent (SVU)
Information
Title	NYPD Police Officer Captain
Family	Marge Cragen (wife) (deceased) Unknown nephew (nephew) Unknown Child (miscarried)

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.

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 Unit from its premiere in 1999 to the present.

In Law & Order

After service as a Green Beret 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.^[1] 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, ^[2] 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, ^[3] 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, ^[4] his former partner and longtime friend Greevey is murdered.

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).^[5] 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 Movie, 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 SVU

In 1999, the character appeared in the spinoff Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, 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.^[6]

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,^[7] 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.

References

1. ^ SVU "Uncivilized"
2. ^ ''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit "Hammered"
3. ^ L&O: "The Blue Wall"
4. ^ L&O "Confession"
5. ^ L&O "Sweeps"
6. ^ Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, "Stolen"
7. ^ SVU: "Turmoil"