American actor & comedian Richard Belzer, who began as an edgy stand-up performer before finding further fame as the cynical but stalwart detective John Munch on Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, has died. He was 78 and died early Sunday at his home in Bozouls in southwest France. He made his first appearance in 1993 as Munch on the first episode of Homicide and his last in 2016 on Law & Order: SVU. In between those two NBC dramas, Belzer played the detective on eight other series, and his hold on the character lasted for 23 years.
Belzer was born in Connecticut to a Jewish family and describes his mother as “physically abusive” and tried to make her laugh so she wouldn’t beat him or his brother. After graduating from Fairfield Warde High School, Belzer worked as a reporter for the Bridgeport Post. He began his career as a stand-up comic at Pips, The Improv, and Catch a Rising Star. Belzer was the audience warm-up comedian for Saturday Night Live and made three guest appearances on the show between 1975 and 1980. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Belzer became an occasional film actor and had small roles in several prominent films as well as in a few music videos.
In addition to his film career, Belzer was a featured player on the National Lampoon Radio Hour. He also had a recurring role on the 1990s series The Flash, played Inspector Henderson on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and did cameos in music videos for Pat Benatar and Mike + the Mechanics.He followed that with starring roles on the Baltimore-based Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–1999) and the New York City-based Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–2013), portraying police detective John Munch in both series. He retired in 2014 but came back for an episode in 2016. Belzer’s older brother, Leonard Belzer, died by suicide at age 73 on July 30, 2014, by jumping from the roof of the New York City luxury apartment building in which he had resided. Belzer’s father had also died by suicide, in 1968.