Richard Belzer, comedian and television detective, dies at 78 : NPR

Richard Belzer is pictured at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

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Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Richard Belzer is pictured at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

NEW YORK — Richard Belzer, the longtime stand-up comedian who became one of television’s most indelible sleuths as John Munch in Homicide: life on the street And Law and Order: SVU, is dead. He was 78 years old.

Belzer died on Sunday at his home in Bozouls in southern France, his longtime friend Bill Scheft said. The Hollywood Reporter. Comedian Laraine Newman first announced his death on Twitter. Actor Henry Winkler, Belzer’s cousin, wrote “Rest in Peace Richard”.

For more than two decades and across 10 series – even including appearances on 30 Rock And Development stopped – Belzer played the wise and acerbic homicide detective prone to conspiracy theories. Belzer first played Munch in a 1993 episode of Homicide and last played it in 2016 on Law and Order: SVU.

Belzer never auditioned for the role. After hearing it on The Howard Stern Showexecutive producer Barry Levinson brought in the comedian to read the role.

“I would never be a detective. But if I was, that’s how I would be,” Belzer said. “They write all my paranoid, anti-establishment theories about dissent and conspiracy. So it’s been a lot of fun for me. A dream, really.”

From this unlikely start, 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. In 2008, Belzer published the novel I’m not a cop! with Michael Ian Black. He also helped write several books on conspiracy theories, on things like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

“He made me laugh a billion times,” longtime friend and fellow stand-up artist Richard Lewis tweeted.

Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Belzer was drawn to acting, he said, during an abusive childhood during which his mother beat him and his older brother, Len. “My kitchen was the hardest room I’ve ever worked in,” Belzer said. People reviewed in 1993.

After being expelled from Dean Junior College in Massachusetts, Belzer embarked on a stand-up life in New York City in 1972. At Catch a Rising Star, Belzer became a regular. He made his big screen debut in Ken Shapiro’s 1974 film The grooved tubea television satire starring Chevy Chase, a film spun off from the Channel One comedy group of which Belzer was a part.

Before saturday night live changed the New York comedy scene, Belzer starred with John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray and others on the National Lampoon Radio Time. In 1975, he became the warm-up comic for the new launch SNL. While many cast members rose to fame quickly, Belzer’s roles were mostly smaller cameos. He later said that SNL creator Lorne Michaels reneged on his promise to cast him on the show.