Comedian and actor, Richard Belzer has passed at age 78. The news came from his longtime friend, original Saturday Night Live cast member, Lorraine Newman. According to Newman, “I’m so sad to hear of Richard Belzer’s passing. I loved this guy so much. He was one of my first friends when I got to New York to do SNL…One of the funniest people ever. A master at crowd work. RIP dearest.”
Belzer was a staple of the early 70s New York comedy scene, warmed up the crowd for SNL for the first three seasons, hosted his own talk show, as well as being a talkshow sidekick, and was comedically roasting the hell out of people when Jeff Ross was still in short pants.
He and his dry sense of humor eventually made their way to dramatic acting through the role of Detective John Munch on the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street. His portrayal of Detective Munch felt so real and lived-in that after the show’s cancellation, the character found his way to the squad room Law and Order: SVU. Over the next couple decades, Belzer would play Munch in episodes on nine other series and in a sketch on one talk show, making Munch the only fictional character to appear on eleven different television shows, and six different networks, played by a single actor. Other shows included The X-Files, The Wire, Arrested Development, and 30 Rock.
Richard was also obsessed with conspiracy theories and wrote a number of books on the subject. In his later years he has been living in the south of France, and had reportedly been an ill health for the last few years.
