Stand-up comic best known as an unforgettable TV cop
Richard Belzer, the longtime stand-up comic who became one of TV’S most indelible detectives as John Munch in “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Law & Order: SVU,” has died. He was 78.
Belzer died Sunday at his home in Beaulieu-sur-mer, France, his longtime friend Bill Scheft said. Scheft, a writer who had been working on a documentary about Belzer, said there was no known cause of death, but that Belzer had been dealing with circulatory and respiratory issues.
The actor Henry Winkler, Belzer’s cousin, tweeted, “Rest in peace Richard.”
For more than two decades and across 10 series — even including appearances on “30 Rock” and “Arrested Development” — Belzer played the wise-cracking, acerbic homicide detective prone to conspiracy theories. Belzer first played Munch on a 1993 episode of “Homicide” and last played him in 2016 on “Law & Order: SVU.”
After hearing Belzer on “The Howard Stern Show,” executive producer Barry Levinson brought him in to read for the part.
“I would never be a detective. But if I were, that’s how I’d be,” Belzer once said. “They write to all my paranoia and anti-establishment dissidence and conspiracy theories.”
Munch would become one of television’s longest-running characters and a sunglasses-wearing presence on the small screen for more than two decades. He also helped write several books on conspiracy theories.
“He made me laugh a billion times,” his longtime friend and fellow stand-up Richard Lewis said Sunday on Twitter.
Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Belzer was drawn to comedy, he said, during an abusive childhood. After being expelled from a Massachusetts college, Belzer embarked on a life of stand-up in New York in 1972.
At Catch a Rising Star, Belzer became a regular performer and emcee. He made his movie debut in Ken Shapiro’s 1974 film “The Groove Tube,” a satire co-starring Chevy Chase.
Before “Saturday Night Live” changed the comedy scene in New York, Belzer performed with John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray and others on the National Lampoon Radio Hour. In 1975, he became the warmup comic for the newly launched “SNL.” Belzer became one of the era’s top stand-ups. He was known especially for his biting, cynical attitude and his witty, sometime combative banter with the audience.
Belzer often played a stand-up comic in film, including in 1980s’ “Fame” and 1983’s “Scarface.” But Munch would change Belzer’s career.
As “Homicide” co-creator Tom Fontana said, “Munch was the spice in these dishes,” Belzer told the AV Club. “Munch was based on a real guy in Baltimore who was a star detective, in a way. He would come onto grisly murder scenes, start doing one-liners, because someone had to break the tension.”
When “Homicide” wrapped in 1999, Munch called Dick Wolf to see if the character could join another NBC series, “Law & Order,” where Munch appeared in a few previous episodes. Wolf already had his leads, but he wanted Belzer to star in a spinoff. That fall, “Law & Order: SVU” premiered, with Belzer starring alongside Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni in a storyline written as though Munch had transferred to New York.
Belzer is survived by his third wife, actor Harlee Mcbride.