Thursday’s Season 27 premiere of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit gave an OG character a fond farewell.

The episode ‘In the Wind’ opened with Mariska Hargitay ‘s Olivia Benson attending an emotional funeral for NYPD Capt. Donald Cragen ( Dann Florek ), who was her boss as far back as the NBC procedural spin-off’s 1999 pilot.

“He was the best boss that I ever had,” says Benson at the memorial service. “Everything I know about being a captain, I learned from him.”

Although Florek is still alive, the actor departed as a series regular in 2014 with the Season 15 finale. He’s continued to reprise the role of Capt. Cragen on several occasions, most recently on a two-episode arc of spin-off Law & Order: Organized Crime last year. His tenure with the Dick Wolf franchise goes back

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