Greetings,
If you're wondering where it all started, it started here with this character. What is "it", you may ask? Well, as we all know, one thing that Law & Order has become famous for, it is switching out cast members at a more regular interval than most shows. Like, for real, I ithink they built a revolving door somewhere just for that purpose. And Max Greevey was the first to go. That kind of makes this character a legend, right? But what about the man behind the myth? Let's find out.
Max Greevey was played by George Dzundza for only the first season of Law & Order. Well, technically, one season and one more episode-ish, but, come on now. Of course, he did go out with a bang, literally. More on that in a moment. At the point that the series started, Greevey had been a cop since the 60's and was once a partner of Don Cragen. Having just been made Sergeant, he got partnered with Mike Logan. They did become quite close friends in their time together, which seems a bit stunning, considering that they had a few differences of opinions.
Yeah, if you recall, Logan was a tad bit Liberal, not to mention agnostic, when it came to several issues. Greevey, on the other hand, was full-on, practicing, Conservative Catholic. They might have had a couple of disagreements. Or more. But I think it's more compelling and emotional when you see two people arguing when you know that they really do care about each other, outside of all the shouting.
When it came to his personal life, Max Greevey was happily married to a woman named Marie with whom he had three children. He also was a bit wary of doctors after he was misdiagnosed with a brain tumor that turned out to be a subdural hematoma. Um, yeah, that doesn't sound so great, but it is not as bad as cancer, apparently. However, it was not this aversion to the medical community that had anything to do with his imminent demise.
Sadly, his last complete appearance was in the season one finale, as he was killed in the opening scene of season two. And right in front of his wife, no less. Honestly, it was really heartbreaking. The acting was spectacular, and everyone did a great job conveying what a loss like this can do. Actually, when I think about it, it was kind of a wake-up call to the audience. Sure, when we watch cop shows, we know people can die on them, but here we are reminded it can be a character we have come to know and love over time. This certainly would not be the last time we'd have to deal with this on Law & Order, but Max Greevey has the honor(?) of being the first.
Whilst we only had one year with him, I liked Max Greevey, and I liked George Dzundza's portrayal of him. I think, what with him having such political and religious differences from his partner, it was one of the first ways they let us know that we were going to get a lot of characters who were going to be different from one another, in pretty much every way possible. It's something I love about Law & Order, and Greevey was a good place to start with it.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
