Veteran Law & Order actor Jesse L. Martin is leaving the hit NBC show to pursue a career on the big screen.  Martin will be replaced by K-Ville actor Anthony Anderson.

Jesse L. Martin is leaving NBC’s Law & Order after nine years on the show. Sources say his character, Detective Ed Green, will be written off. In the wake of Martin’s departure, Anthony Anderson, star of Fox’s freshman cop drama K-Ville, is in final talks to come on board as a new detective partnered with Jeremy Sisto’s Cyrus Lupo. Martin is expected to shoot one more episode with Anderson stepping in later this season.

The best part of this story is that Martin has signed on to star as Marvin Gaye in a biopic of the life of the late, great R&B star.  Martin bears a strong resemblance to Gaye, as you can see below.