Law & Order Mike Logan was born in 1958 in
New York City's Lower East Side into a
working-class Irish-Catholic family. His father was also a police officer. He spent 10 years attending Our Lady of Mercy, where he was often in trouble and sent to see the guidance counselor. Little is revealed about his extended family, though he has mentioned a cousin named Dave, and has also stated that his family crest has a griffin on it, suggesting a European maternal line distinct from that of his
surname. He is originally portrayed as a cocky, womanizing
misanthrope with a short fuse, which his captain,
Donald Cragen (
Dann Florek), refers to as his "famous temper".) and
sexually (by his parish priest, whom he later confronts and brings to justice Producer
Dick Wolf noted of Logan that he provided this complex backstory in creating the character "for the sake of continuity in the writing" and to "provide the foundation for the conflict that drives much of the drama in the series". In several episodes, his anger explodes. When his first partner,
Max Greevey (
George Dzundza), is
murdered by a suspect in a
racketeering case, Logan forces a confession from the murderer at gunpoint, and comes very close to killing him. The incident nearly costs Logan his job. He eventually learns to accept Greevey's death, however, with help from
forensic psychiatrist Elizabeth Olivet (
Carolyn McCormick). He and Olivet become close, and it is later implied that they slept together. Logan's second partner,
Phil Cerreta (
Paul Sorvino), is also shot in the line of duty, but he survives and takes on a desk job. For the rest of the character's tenure on the show, Logan is partnered with
Lennie Briscoe (
Jerry Orbach), with whom he forms a close friendship. Logan dislikes wealthy people with upper-class professions, especially
lawyers, accounting for his antagonistic relationship with Executive Assistant District Attorney
Jack McCoy (
Sam Waterston). He has diverse political views; he is adamantly
pro-choice, favors
drug legalization, and compares the
Patriot Act to
George Orwell's
Nineteen Eighty-Four. While he has at various points harbored prejudices against people of
Arabic by 2007, he shows unbridled disdain for any form of
racism. When Noth was fired from the show in 1995 over a salary dispute, the Logan character was written out; in the
Law & Order universe, Logan is transferred from
Manhattan Homicide to the
Staten Island Domestic Disputes squad in 1995 for publicly punching a
homophobic politician who had been tried for the murder of a
gay man (based on the
Dan White case). The transfer is considered a punishment and a career dead end for Logan; McCoy refers to Logan's new assignment as "doing two-and-a-half to five in Staten Island". He is replaced by
Det. Rey Curtis (
Benjamin Bratt). After Noth's firing was announced, Orbach sought to have the character of Logan killed off, to provide Orbach's character with an "
Emmy moment" of "a sobbing Briscoe... cradling the dead body of Mike Logan in his arms"; Wolf declined this request, thus making it possible for Logan to return as a character later in the franchise.
Exiled: A Law & Order Movie The Logan character was revived in 1998 and given his own
TV movie,
Exiled: A Law & Order Movie. By the time of the movie, Logan has become a homicide detective again, but is still in Staten Island. He tries to get back to Manhattan by solving the murder of a
prostitute, in the process discovering that his old friend,
Detective Tony Profaci (John Fiore), is involved in the crime.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent ": This episode aired nearly 18 years after Noth's first portrayal of the character, and this was the final appearance of the character. In 2005, the character was added to
Law & Order: Criminal Intent, a presence described as providing "the strongest link between
CI and
Law & Order". In the 2006 episode "
To the Bone", he uses deadly force against a murder suspect, unaware that the man is an undercover police officer. He is cleared of official misconduct, but has
PTSD symptoms as a result of killing a fellow officer; he reaches out to Olivet for counseling. Logan's shooting of the undercover officer sets in motion a chain of events that eventually leads to Deakins' retirement from the NYPD. In the sixth season, the Major Case Squad is handed over to a new captain,
Danny Ross (
Eric Bogosian), and Logan is assigned a new partner,
Det. Megan Wheeler (
Julianne Nicholson). At the end of the sixth season, while Wheeler goes on temporary assignment (due to Nicholson's first pregnancy), Logan begins dating his neighbor Holly Lauren (
Kelli Williams), but she is murdered before the relationship can develop. During the investigation, Logan discovers that Lauren had a whole other life. Her name used to be Kathleen Shaw and she was running from an abusive ex-boyfriend, who becomes a person of interest in her death. When District Attorney
Arthur Branch (
Fred Dalton Thompson) drops charges against Lauren's ex, Julian (Alec Von Bargen), due to lack of evidence of a homicide, Logan is deeply upset. but his decision is not revealed until the following season, when Ross mentions to Wheeler that her partner "quit on her", referring to Logan. He is replaced by
Zack Nichols (
Jeff Goldblum).
Weapons Mike Logan carries a
Smith & Wesson Model 36 .38 Special caliber revolver in the original
Law & Order series. In
Law & Order: Criminal Intent, he still carried the Model 36 in his early appearances, but he later switches to a
Glock 19 9mm semiautomatic pistol before moving to a
Colt Detective Special, another .38 caliber revolver. ==Crossover appearance on
Homicide: Life on the Street==