After a career on the Law & Order franchise that spanned more than 20 years, Dann Florek -- who plays Captain Donald Cragen -- will be leaving Law & Order: SVU in 2014. 

According to E! News, Florek -- who originated the role of Captain Donald Cragen on the original Law & Order back in the 1990s -- will depart the series later this season, just weeks after Richard Belzer (who played Detective John Munch) departed the series. Florek confirmed his departure on Twitter. "Friday was the last day 4 Cragen/Florek. It was a sweet send off! But he'll live on in syndication land 4 evah!" Florek tweeted on Dec. 9. 

According to showrunner Warren Leight, the decision to have Florek/Cragen depart the show was a practical one. "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. 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. Cragen knows at some point in the season or by the end of the season, he will have hit mandatory retirement, so he'll have to figure out when that moment is. We're playing that anxiety that the Captain is leaving at some point." 

But while Belzer and Florek have both departed, fans of the show don't have to worry about the departure of favorite Mariska Hargitay, who plays Detective Olivia Benson. "This show has changed me. I started and I was an actor happy to have a job, and now I feel like I'm so grateful I've found something that moves me so deeply," Hargitay told The Huffington Post about her work on the show and her organization The Joyful Heart Foundation. "I'm honored to be part of a movement that's changing the way people think, ending ignorance and changing the way people deal with these issues."