2023 has already been privy to several shocking and heartbreaking celebrity deaths, and the blows just keep on coming. Previously one of TV’s hardest working detective actors, former Law & Order: SVU star and comedy king Richard Belzer is reported to have died this weekend at the age of 78, and he allegedly left behind quite the epic final thoughts.
As first revealed online via longtime friend and fellow comedy icon Laraine Newman on Twitter, Richard Belzer’s death was verified soon after by another friend of many years, writer Bill Scheft. The Late Night with David Letterman writer spoke with THR, sharing a general assessment of Belzer’s health situation while also revealing the actor’s on-brand last words. According to Scheft:
He had lots of health issues, and his last words were, ‘Fuck you, motherfucker.'
Granted, that NSFW musing might be a shock for the millions and millions of TV fans who know Richard Belzer best from his years alongside Ice-T as Law & Order: SVU’s John Munch. But for those familiar with his years on stage as a stand-up comedian, as well as non-broadcast acting roles, they speak to the entertainer’s more amusingly cynical side.
Richard Belzer reportedly passed away early on Sunday, February 19, while at his French home in Bozouls. An exact cause of death was not shared.
In her Twitter post, Laraine Newman honored her hilarious pal, saying:
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. We used to go out to dinner every week at Sheepshead Bay for lobster. One of the funniest people ever. A master at crowd work. RIP dearest.
The timing of Richard Belzer's death will be especially heartbreaking for hardcore SVU fans, as last Thursday's episode of the NBC drama featured an arc for Ice-T's Fin that directly addressed Munch's current whereabouts. It was revealed that the former detective was retired and likely living in Baltimore with a divored rabbi after having bought back his old cop bar. That update came six years after Belzer's final appearance as Munch in Law & Order: SVU proper.
Not that the stalwart crime drama was the only spot where John Munch was known to pop up. Beyond being credited with more than 300 episodes of SVU from Seasons 1-15 - all available to stream now - Belzer first originated the character on Homicide: Life on the Street opposite Ned Beatty and Andre Braugher. He was on that show for all seven seasons of its run, a span that also included appearances on the Law & Order mothership, as well as on Fox's The X-Files. (The latter also tied in with Belzer's conspiracy-driven interests.)
After landing SVU, Richard Belzer went on to bring John Munch into fellow spinoff Law & Order: Trial By Jury in 2005, while also popping up outside the franchise in UPN's The Beat (in 2000), in a Season 3 episode of Arrested Development (2006), a Season 5 episode of The Wire 2008, and a Season 5 episode of 30 Rock (2011), while also appearing uncredited in an episode of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015), and in Muppet form on Sesame Street. It's almost baffling that his 1999 guest spot in NBC's Mad About You had him playing a wholly different detective, even if that was part of the point. Truly, John Munch knew how to leave a widespread legacy, much like the man who portrayed him.
Born on August 4, 1944, the Connecticut native Richard Belzer first entered the world of stand-up comedy in the 1970s, as a way to cope with his father's suicide, which happened four years after his mother succumbed to breast cancer. His first film work sprouted from those on-stage efforts in the form of the R-rated sketch comedy The Groove Tube, released in 1974. That movie is said to have inspired Lorne Michaels to create Saturday Night Live, where Belzer was brought in to serve as a warm-up comedian for the live audiences. He popped up on TV a couple of times there, and in the early years of Sesame Street (not as Munch), but it was the 1980s when his career kicked into higher gear.
During that decade, Belzer popped up in Fame, Scarface, Night Shift, Moonlighting, Miami Vice, D.C. Follies, Fletch Lives, and music videoes from Pat Benatar and more. Upon entering the '90s, the actor played into three DC Comics TV series, starring in the first episodic take on The Flash opposite Arrowverse returnee John Wesley Shipp, as well as a handful of episodes of Rick Springfield's Human Target and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Before and after his X-Files cameo, Belzer took on a few noteworthy genre offerings such as The Puppet Masters, Not of this Earth, The Invaders and Species II, where he portrayed the President of the United States.
Beyond his fictional roles, Richard Belzer's comedy career took off in other ways as well. He had a short-lived talk show in the mid-1980s called Hot Properties that was most infamous for a segment in which then-WWF superstar Hulk Hogan was too successful in applying a sleeper hold on the actor, who passed out and injured his head. He played himself various times across both TV and film, such as in 1999's Man in the Moon and a 2000 ep of 3rd Rock from the Sun, as well as in secondary appearances of the aforementioned 30 Rock and Arrested Development. He's also appeared in a plethora of specials and documentaries devoted to the world of stand-up comedy and its stand-out stars, with his final film role coming in 2016's The Comedian, where he fittingly also played himself.
We at CinemaBlend send our thoughts and condolences to the family and friends of Richard Belzer in their time of mourning.
