Comic and television detective Richard Belzer has died at the age of 78

NEW YORK –

Richard Belzer, the longtime stand-up comedian who became one of TV’s most indelible investigators as John Munch on Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: SVU, has died. He was 78.

Belzer died Sunday at his home in Beaulieu-sur-Mer in southern France, his longtime friend Bill Scheft said. Scheft, a writer who had worked on a documentary about Belzer, said there was no known cause of death, but Belzer was dealing with circulatory and respiratory problems. Actor Henry Winkler, Belzer’s cousin, tweeted, “Rest in Peace Richard.”

For more than two decades and 10 series – including appearances on “30 Rock” and “Arrested Development” – Belzer played the smart, scathing homicide detective prone to conspiracy theories. Belzer first played Munch in a 1993 episode of Homicide and last played him in 2016’s Law & Order: SVU.

Belzer never auditioned for the role. After hearing him on The Howard Stern Show, executive producer Barry Levinson brought in the comedian to read for the role.

“I would never become a detective. But if it were me, I would be like this,” Belzer once said. So I had a lot of fun. A dream, really.”

From that unlikely beginning, Belzer’s Munch became one of television’s longest-running characters and a sunglass-wearing presence on the small screen for more than two decades. In 2008, Belzer published the novel I Am Not a Cop!, starring 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,” his longtime friend and stand-up colleague Richard Lewis said on Twitter Sunday.

Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Belzer was drawn to comedy, he says, during an abusive childhood in which his mother beat him and his older brother, Len. He made impressions of his childhood idol, Jerry Lewis. “My kitchen was the toughest room I’ve ever worked in,” Belzer told People magazine in 1993.

After being expelled from Dean Junior College in Massachusetts, Belzer began a stand-up life in 1972 in New York. On Catch a Rising Star, Belzer became a regular performer and host. He made his screen debut in 1974 in Ken Shapiro’s The Groove Tube, a television satire starring Chevy Chase, a film spawned from comedy group Channel One, of which Belzer was a member.

Before Saturday Night Live transformed the comedy scene in New York, Belzer appeared on the National Lampoon Radio Hour with John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray and others. In 1975, he became a warm-up comic for the rebooted “SNL.” While many cast members rose to fame quickly, Belzer’s roles were mostly minor cameos. He later said “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels had his promise to put him on the show integrate, not adhered to.

But Belzer became one of the best stand-ups of the era. He was particularly known for his scathing, cynical manner and his witty, sometimes combative, quips with audiences. One of the most influential comedians of the ’70s, Belzer was a master of crowdwork.

“My style evolved from dealing with drunk people at noon, one, two in the morning and trying to be like an alchemist and get the direction of their life and turn it into golden jokes,” Belzer said of Terry Gross “Fresh Air”.

Belzer later wrote an irreverent self-help book entitled How to Be a Stand-Up Comic with advice on how to apologize to Frank Sinatra when you make fun of him on stage or how to deal with heckling. One of his favorite lines was, “I have a microphone. you have a beer God has a plan and you are not part of it.”

Belzer often played a stand-up comic in films, including 1980’s ‘Fame’ and 1983’s ‘Scarface’. He had small roles here and there, including 1982’s ‘Night Shift’ and 1989’s ‘ Fletch Lives”. But Munch changed Belzer’s career.

As Munch co-creator Tom Fontana put it, “Munch was the spice in these dishes,” Belzer told the AV Club. “Munch was based on a real guy in Baltimore who was kind of a star detective. He would come up with grisly murder scenes, start doing one-liners because someone needed to break the suspense. So Munch fulfilled a very important function. Not only was he a dissident who said what he thought, he also had the gallows humor needed on a homicide squad.”

When “Homicide” ended in early 1999, Munch called Dick Wolf to see if the character could join another NBC series, “Law & Order,” on which Munch had appeared in a few earlier episodes. Wolf already had his leads on Law & Order. Order,” but he wanted Belzer to star in a spin-off. That fall, “Law & Order: SVU” premiered, in which Belzer starred alongside Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni in a story written to like Munch had moved from Baltimore to New York.

“Richard Belzer’s Detective John Munch is one of television’s most iconic figures,” Wolf said in a statement.

“I first worked with Richard on the ‘Law & Order’/’Homicide’ crossover and loved the character so much,” said Wolf. “I wanted to make him one of the original characters in ‘SVU.’ The rest is history. Richard brought humor and joy to all of our lives, was the consummate professional and we will all miss him dearly.”

Belzer is survived by his third wife, actress Harlee McBride, whom he married in 1985. For the last 20 years they have lived mostly in France, in houses he bought in part with the proceeds of a legal battle with Hulk Hogan. In 1985, Belzer had Hogan guest on his cable TV talk show Hot Properties to put a chin strap on him. Belzer passed out, hit his head, and sued Hogan for $5 million. They settled out of court.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that Belzer died in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France, not Bozouls as Scheft originally told The Hollywood Reporter.

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