Biography

Worked as copywriter and/or producer of over 100 television commercials (1969-76).

Producer Dick Wolf is old friends with producer Tom Fontana. They often use actors from each other's television series, usually resulting in the actors working on two shows at once. Examples are J.K. Simmons on Law & Order (1990) and Oz (1997), Christopher Meloni and Dean Winters on Oz (1997) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) and Kathryn Erbe on Oz (1997) and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001). Richard Belzer famously leaped from producers' show to show as Detective John Munch.

Is a close friend of famous crime novelist James Ellroy. Wolf even hired Ellroy's best friend, LAPD Homicide Detective William Stoner, as a technical advisor on his television series Dragnet (2003).

Attended prep school, which served as basis later for his screenplay for School Ties (1992).

Claims the scariest movie he has ever seen is Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965).

(talking to critics about his 'Law and Order' franchise) "You guys don't report the financial aspects of how successful the brand is. The only reason the brand is that successful -- it's show business. No show, no business. You've got an actress sitting up here (Mariska Hargitay) who has received two consecutive Emmy nominations for a show ("Law & Order: Special Victims Unit") that everybody would describe as mature. I didn't see that much fuss made about it. You read about who's hot, who's not. These shows are never mentioned. We're not looking to be the hot show. That's not what the 'Law & Order' brand is about. It's about longevity and about repeatability and about staying on the air and being a profit center for NBC for years to come."

Desperate Housewives is a cultural phenomenon. But, in my mind, it's a sprinter. These shows (the Law & Order shows) are marathon runners. These shows are designed to run for unreasonable periods of time.

If you're going to the theater and the actor does not have a 'Law & Order' credit on the Playbill, it means he's just got off the bus [to New York], or is really a bad actor.

I've never understood the obsession with younger writers and dramas. Comedies I understand, but how do you write drama at 23; you haven't experienced anything. You know about 23-year-olds. It's kind of hard to write about 60 year old EADAs [Executive Assistant District Attorneys]. Only a couple of us are 60 years old so far, but there are not many 23-year-olds who can write about life-changing situations unless it's medical. That sounds weird, but there's not the mileage on the odometer to get under the surface. There are exceptions that prove the rule-Dickens wasn't bad at 23.

[on the cancellation of Law & Order after 20 years on air] That's business. That's life. Every show is born under a death sentence, they just don't tell you the date of execution.