Richard Belzer, TV actor and comedian, passes away at 74

Veteran stand-up comedian Richard Belzer is dead. Belzer made a name for himself by playing detective on TV Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: SVU. He was 78. Belzer died on Sunday at his home in Bozouls in South France, his longtime friend Bill Scheft said to a news website. The news of his death, however, was first announced by comedian Laraine Newman on Twitter. The actor Henry Winkler, Belzer's cousin, wrote,“Rest in peace Richard.”\

Belzer worked on TV and became popular playing the wise-cracking homicide prone to conspiracy theory in several shows including 30 Rock and Arrested Development. His TV career spanned over two decades and he features in 10 series.

Belzer first played John Munch on a 1993 episode of Homicide and last played him in 2016 on Law & Order: SVU.

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

“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.”

From that unlikely beginning, Belzer's Munch would 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 Am Not a Cop! with Michael Ian Black. He also helped write several books on conspiracy theories, about things like President John FKennedy's assassination and Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

“He made me laugh a billion times,” his longtime friend and fellow stand-up Richard Lewis said on Twitter.

Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Belzer was drawn to comedy, due to an abusive childhood in which his mother would beat him and his older brother, Len. “My kitchen was the toughest room I ever worked," Belzer had told in a 1993 interview.

Belzer embarked on a life of stand-up in New York in 1972. At Catch a Rising Star, Belzer became a regular. He made his big-screen debut in Ken Shapiro's 1974 film The Groove Tube, a TV satire co-starring Chevy Chase, a film that grew out of the comedy group called Channel- one that Belzer was a part of.

Belzer performed with the likes of John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray and others on the National Lampoon Radio Hour before becoming a part of Saturday Night Live in 1975.

(with agency inputs)