Richard Belzer, the long-running stand-up comedian who starred as John Munch in Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: SVU, has died. He was 78.
Richard Belzer died on Sunday at his house in Bozouls, southern France, according to his longtime friend Bill Scheft. Laraine Newman, a comedian, originally reported his death on Twitter. “Rest in peace, Richard,” written by Richard Belzer’s cousin, actor Henry Winkler.
Richard Belzer played the wise-cracking, sardonic murder investigator prone to conspiracy ideas for more than two decades and spanning ten programs, including cameos on 30 Rock and Arrested Development. Richard Belzer first appeared on Homicide in 1993 and last appeared on Law & Order: SVU in 2016.
Richard Belzer never tried out for the part. Executive producer Barry Levinson called the comedian in to read for the part after hearing him on The Howard Stern Show. “I’d never work as a detective. But if I were, I’d be like that “According to Belzer. “They address their letters to all of my paranoia, anti-establishment dissidence, and conspiracy ideas. So far, it’s been a lot of fun. That was all a dream.”
Belzer’s Munch would go on to become one of television’s longest-running characters and a sunglasses-wearing presence on the small screen for more than two decades. Richard Belzer and Michael Ian Black collaborated on the book I Am Not a Police! in 2008. He also contributed to the publication of various publications on conspiracy theories, including those about the killing of President John F. Kennedy and the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
“He made me laugh a billion times,” tweeted his longtime friend and fellow stand-up comedian Richard Lewis. Belzer, who was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, was inspired to humor following an abusive upbringing in which his mother beat him and his elder brother, Len. “My kitchen was the most difficult space I ever worked in,” Belzer told People magazine in 1993.
Richard Belzer began his stand-up career in New York in 1972 after getting dismissed from Dean Junior College in Massachusetts. Belzer became a regular on Catch a Rising Star. He made his feature film debut in Ken Shapiro’s 1974 film The Groove Tube, a TV parody co-starring Chevy Chase, a film that came out of Belzer’s comedic ensemble Channel One.
Before Saturday Night Live transformed the comic landscape in New York, Richard Belzer appeared on the National Lampoon Radio Hour alongside John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, and others. In 1975, he was hired as a warm-up comic for the newly founded Saturday Night Live. While several of the cast members rose to prominence rapidly, Belzer’s performances were primarily minor cameos. He later claimed that SNL founder Lorne Michaels broke a commitment to include him on the show.