After starring in "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" as the top boss, Captain Donald Cragen, Dann Florek seemingly retired from acting, too. In 2013, after starring in more than 300 episodes, Florek bid farewell to the show, and not due to controversial reasons. He was 62 years old at the time, which is nearly the mandatory retirement age for the NYPD. In short, the writers were just being realistic.
"In the real world, which we try to very hard to simulate, NYPD has mandatory retirement before your 63rd birthday. And we were trying to figure out how to deal with it," Leight told Zap2It (via E! News). "The reason NYPD does it is because you can't have 65-year-old guys running after guys. It is a hard and fast rule." Florek didn't seem to take it personally, as he posted a short, but witty statement upon his exit. "Friday was the last day 4 Cragen/Florek. It was a sweet send off! But he'll live on in syndication land 4 evah!" he wrote in a tweet.
And just like his character, who has expressed interest in winding down and traveling the world, Florek has taken a step back from acting, too. After "SVU," he only appeared in a few projects, including an episode of "Under the Dome" and a small role in the film "Disillusioned."
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