Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Richard Belzer dies: ‘Law & Order: SVU’ actor, comedian was 78



Belzer, a longtime comedian, went on to play one in every of TV’s favourite detectives for greater than twenty years.

NEW YORK — Richard Belzer, the longtime stand-up comedian who turned one in every of TV’s most indelible detectives as John Munch in “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Law & Order: SVU,” has died. He was 78.

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Belzer died Sunday at his house in Bozouls in southern France, his longtime good friend Bill Scheft told The Hollywood Reporter. Comedian Laraine Newman first introduced his dying on Twitter. 

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“I loved this guy so much. He was one of my first friends when I got to New York to do SNL,” Newman wrote. “One of the funniest people ever. A master at crowd work. RIP dearest.”

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Others posting social media tributes included actor Henry Winkler, Belzer’s cousin, who wrote “Rest in peace Richard.”

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For greater than twenty years and throughout 10 sequence — together with even appearances on “30 Rock” and “Arrested Development” — Belzer performed the wise-cracking murder detective susceptible to conspiracy theories. Belzer first performed Munch on a 1993 episode of “Homicide” and final performed him in 2016 on “Law & Order: SVU.”

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“Working with him on Homicide to SVU has been a hilarious, surprising and always joyful experience, I’m sure he’s giving ’em all a lot of laughs upstairs,” wrote ‘SVU’ executive producer Julie Martin.

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Belzer by no means auditioned for the position. After listening to him on “The Howard Stern Show,” government producer Barry Levinson introduced Belzer in to learn for the half.

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“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. So it’s been a lot of fun for me. A dream, really.”

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Val Lick contributed to this report.

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