Known for his role on the NBC television series Law & Order, award-winning actor Sam Waterston will speak to the Princeton University Class of 2024 on May 27 on Cannon Green.

Waterston, whose career has spanned more than five decades, has starred in countless television, film, and stage roles and has been nominated for Emmy, Academy, and Tony awards. In February he stepped down from his celebrated Law & Order role as district attorney Jack McCoy after appearing in more than 400 episodes since 1994.

At least two of Waterston’s roles have Princeton connections: he played Nick Carraway in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and played physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in a 1980 BBC miniseries. He also played Hamlet on Broadway, and Abraham Lincoln on stage and television.

In a video message to fellow seniors, Class Day committee members said Waterston’s “commitment to his craft and various art forms is especially inspiring” as students prepare to follow their own passions and careers after graduating from Princeton.

The students noted that in addition to his accomplished acting career, Waterston has dedicated himself to issues such as climate activism and ocean preservation. He was a longtime board member of Refugees International and, in 2012, received the Goodermote Humanitarian Award from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for “his longtime support of the plight of refugees around the world.”

Class Day, which takes place the day before Princeton’s Commencement, is organized by members of the senior class. The ceremony also includes speeches by graduating seniors, the recognition of class members for their contributions, and the induction of honorary class members.