Richard Belzer

Belzer was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on August 4, 1944,{{cite magazine |date=January 17, 2022 |title=Horoscope |magazine=TV Guide |page=67}} to a Jewish family.{{Cite news |last= |date=July 31, 2014 |title=Reports: Richard Belzer's brother dead from suicide |language=en-US |work=Connecticut Post |url=https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Reports-Richard-Belzer-s-brother-dead-from-5658076.php |access-date=February 19, 2023}}{{Cite news |last=Steinberg |first=Jacques |date=January 14, 2009 |title=Two Funny Guys With the Same Name, but Not the Same Jokes |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/arts/television/14rich.html |access-date=March 22, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302101305/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/arts/television/14rich.html |archive-date=March 2, 2012}} He described his mother as frequently physically abusive, and he declared that his comedy career began when trying to make her laugh to distract her from abusing him and his brother. After graduating from Fairfield Warde High School, Belzer worked as a reporter for the Bridgeport Post.

Belzer attended Dean College, which was then known as Dean Junior College, in Franklin, Massachusetts, but was expelled.{{cite web |title=Richard Belzer |url=http://www.southjersey.com/articles/?articleid=3474 |access-date=March 19, 2018 |website=SouthJersey.com}}

After his first divorce, Belzer relocated to New York City, moved in with singer Shelley Ackerman, and began working as a stand-up comic at Pips, The Improv, and Catch a Rising Star. He participated in the Channel One comedy group that satirized television and became the basis for the cult movie The Groove Tube, in which Belzer played the co-star of the ersatz TV show The Dealers.

Belzer was the audience warm-up comedian for Saturday Night Live{{cite web |last=Getlen |first=Larry |date=September 24, 2010 |title='Uncontrollable Wit': An Interview with Law & Order{{'}}s Richard Belzer |url=http://www.aarp.org/entertainment/television/info-09-2010/interview_richard_belzer.html |access-date=September 4, 2016 |website=AARP}} and made three guest appearances on the show between 1975 and 1980. He also opened for musician Warren Zevon during his tour supporting the release of his album Excitable Boy.{{cite book |editor-first=Zeke |editor-last=Jarvis |title=Make 'Em Laugh: American Humorists of the 20th and 21st Century |chapter=Richard Belzer |publisher=ABC-Clio |location=Santa Barbara, California |date=2015 |isbn=9781440829956 |page=215}}

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Belzer became an occasional film actor. A short skit of a younger Belzer can be found on Sesame Street in a season 9 episode in 1978 when two young men attempt a picnic and boat ride, only to be thwarted by a dog who eats their food. He is noted for minor roles in Fame, Café Flesh, Night Shift, Scarface, Girl 6, and Fletch Lives. He appeared in the music videos for the Mike + The Mechanics song "Taken In", the Pat Benatar song "Le Bel Age", and the Kansas song "Can't Cry Anymore" all of which were made by Flattery Yukich Inc (Producer Paul Flattery and Director Jim Yukich). He appeared in A Very Brady Sequel as an LAPD detective.{{cite web |url=https://variety.com/2023/tv/obituaries-people-news/richard-belzer-dead-law-and-order-svu-1235528614/ |title=Richard Belzer, stand-up comic and 'Law & Order: SVU' star, dies at 78 |publisher=Variety |date=2023-02-19 |access-date=2023-02-19}}

In addition to his film career, Belzer was a featured player on the National Lampoon Radio Hour with co-stars John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and Harold Ramis, a half-hour comedy program aired on 600 plus U.S. radio stations from 1973 to 1975.{{cite web |work=NPR |title=The National Lampoon Radio Hour |date=November 17, 2003 |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1505048}} Several of his sketches were released on National Lampoon albums, drawn from the Radio Hour, including several bits in which he portrayed a pithy call-in talk show host named "Dick Ballantine".{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}

In the late 1970s, he co-hosted Brink & Belzer on WNBC radio (660 AM) in New York City.{{cite magazine |first=Scott |last=Haller |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aNECAAAAMBAJ&q=richard+belzer+disk+jockey&pg=PA33 |title=Waking Up Weird: Can Brink and Belzer Save WNBC? |date=July 2, 1979 |magazine=New York |access-date=March 19, 2018 |via=Google Books}} He was a frequent guest on The Howard Stern Show. Following the departure of Randi Rhodes from Air America Radio, Belzer guest-hosted the afternoon program on the network.{{cite news |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/10/richard-belzer-to-fill-in_n_96098.html |first=Danny |last=Shea |date=April 18, 2008 |title=Richard Belzer to Fill in During Randi Rhodes' Air America Time Slot |access-date=June 14, 2014 |work=The Huffington Post |location=New York City}}

Belzer was a regular guest on the right-wing radio show of Alex Jones and appeared on the episode covering the Boston Marathon bombing, in which he referred to the bombing as a false flag event.{{Cite web |title=#349: April 15-16, 2013 |url=https://player.fm/series/knowledge-fight-2313626/knowledge-fight-april-15-16-2013 |website=Knowledge Fight |date=September 30, 2019 |via=PlayerFM}}{{time needed|date=February 2023}}

In the 1980s, Belzer was a regular on Alan Thicke's short-lived show Thicke of the Night. He also briefly starred in The Richard Belzer Show on Cinemax,{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/19/arts/tv-review-richard-belzer-show-comedy-series-on-cable.html |title=TV REVIEW; 'RICHARD BELZER SHOW,' COMEDY SERIES ON CABLE |newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 19, 1984 |access-date=March 1, 2023 |last=O'Connor |first=John |url-access=limited}} and hosted the Lifetime cable TV talk show, Hot Properties. By the 1990s, he was appearing frequently on television. He was a regular on The Flash as a news anchor and reporter. In several episodes of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, he played Inspector William Henderson.

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. Barry Levinson, Executive Producer of Homicide, said Belzer was a "lousy actor" in audition when he read lines from the script for "Gone for Goode", the first episode in the series.{{Cite news |last=Mendoza |first=Manuel |title=Revisit 'Life on the Street' |work=The Dallas Morning News |date=June 11, 2003 |location=Dallas, Texas |page=1E}} Levinson asked Belzer to take time to reread and practice the material, then read it again. At his second reading, Levinson said Belzer was "still terrible", but that the actor eventually found confidence in his performance.{{Cite AV media |title=Homicide Life on the Street – The Seasons 1 & 2 |date=2003 |medium=DVD audio commentary |publisher=A&E Home Video |people=Levinson, Barry}}

In addition, Belzer played Munch in episodes on seven other series and in a sketch on one talk show, making Munch the only fictional character to appear on 11 different television shows played by a single actor.{{cite web |last=Ganley |first=Doug |date=October 16, 2013 |title=Richard Belzer retires Detective Munch |url=https://www.cnn.com/2013/10/16/showbiz/tv/richard-belzer-detective-munch-retires/index.html |website=CNN |location=Atlanta, Georgia}} These shows were on six different networks:

• Homicide: Life on the Street (NBC)
• Law & Order (NBC)
• The X-Files (Fox)
• The Beat (UPN)
• Law & Order: Trial by Jury (NBC)
• Belzer's appearance on Trial by Jury, which aired April 15, 2005, made him the third actor ever to play the same character in six different prime-time TV series. The other two actors are John Ratzenberger and George Wendt, who played Cliff Clavin and Norm Peterson, respectively, in Cheers (1982–93), St. Elsewhere (1985), The Tortellis (1987), Wings (1990), The Simpsons (1994), and Frasier (2002).
• Arrested Development (Fox)
• The Wire (HBO)
• 30 Rock (NBC)
• The characters are watching a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode; a scene shot for 30 Rock
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC)
• Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix), in which he played a John Munch-like character on a fictional Law & Order spin-off.

In March 2016, executive producer Warren Leight announced Belzer would return to reprise the role in a May 2016 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, titled "Fashionable Crimes".{{cite magazine |url=http://www.ew.com/article/2016/03/22/law-order-svu-richard-belzer-munch-returning |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |title='Law & Order: SVU': Richard Belzer returning as Detective Munch |first=Natalie |last=Abrams |date=March 22, 2016 |access-date=March 22, 2016}}

Belzer portrayed Det. Munch for 22 consecutive seasons on Homicide (7 seasons) and Law & Order: SVU (15 seasons), which exceeded the previous primetime live-action record of twenty consecutive seasons held by James Arness (who portrayed Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke from 1955 to 1975) and Kelsey Grammer (as Dr. Frasier Crane on Cheers and Frasier from 1984 to 2004). This record has since been passed by Belzer's SVU co-stars Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T.

Belzer appeared in several of Comedy Central's televised broadcasts of Friars' Club roasts. On June 9, 2001, Belzer himself was honored by the New York Friars Club and the Toyota Comedy Festival as the honoree of the first-ever roast open to the public. Comedians and friends on the dais included Roastmaster Paul Shaffer; Christopher Walken; Danny Aiello; Barry Levinson; Robert Klein; Bill Maher; SVU co-stars Mariska Hargitay, Christopher Meloni, Ice-T, and Dann Florek; and Law & Order{{'s}} Jerry Orbach. At the December 1, 2002, roast of Chevy Chase, Belzer said, "The only time Chevy Chase has a funny bone in his body is when I fuck him in the ass."{{cite web |first=Virginia |last=Heffernan |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2074752 |title=The Meanest Roast |date=December 2, 2002 |access-date=December 2, 2002 |work=Slate |location=San Francisco, California}}

Belzer voiced the character of Loogie for most of the South Park episode titled "The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000".{{cite web |last=Crockford |first=C.M. |date=2022-08-05 |title=The Law & Order star you likely forgot had a role on South Park |url=https://www.looper.com/884067/the-law-order-star-you-likely-forgot-had-a-role-on-south-park/ |access-date=2023-02-19 |publisher=Looper}} He and Brian Doyle-Murray were featured in the tenth-season premiere of Sesame Street.{{Cite web |date=August 22, 2006 |title=The Muppets Meet… Munch? |url=https://observer.com/2006/08/sesame-street-law-and-order/ |access-date=February 8, 2021 |website=Observer}}

Belzer believed there was a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy{{cite news |last=Birnbaum |first=Robert |date=November 18, 2013 |title=JFK Is Still Dead: Another Historiographical Moment |url=http://www.vqronline.org/books/jfk-still-dead-another-historiographical-moment |newspaper=Virginia Quarterly Review |publisher=University of Virginia |location=Charlottesville, Virginia |access-date=December 22, 2014}} and wrote five books discussing conspiracy theories:

• UFOs, JFK, and Elvis: Conspiracies You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Believe (2000){{Cite web |title=About the Author: Richard Belzer |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/1911/richard-belzer |access-date=2023-02-19 |website=Penguin Random House |language=en-US}}
• Dead Wrong: Straight Facts on the Country's Most Controversial Cover-Ups{{Cite web |title=Dead Wrong |url=https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781620878705/dead-wrong |access-date=2023-02-19 |website=Skyhorse Publishing |language=en-US}}
• Hit List: An In-Depth Investigation into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination{{Cite web |title=Hit List |url=https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/arcade-publishing/9781620878071/hit-list |access-date=2023-02-19 |website=Arcade Publishing |language=en-US}}
• Corporate Conspiracies: How Wall Street Took Over Washington{{Cite web |title=Corporate Conspiracies |url=https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/arcade-publishing/9781510711266/corporate-conspiracies |access-date=2023-02-19 |website=Arcade Publishing |language=en-US}}
• Someone Is Hiding Something: What Happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370?{{cite journal |last=Elias |first=Marilyn |date=Winter 2013 |title=Conspiracy Act |url=http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2013/winter/conspiracy-act |journal=Intelligence Report |publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center |location=Montgomery, Alabama |issue=152 |access-date=December 22, 2014}}

Dead Wrong and Hit List were written with journalist David Wayne and reached The New York Times Best Seller list. Someone Is Hiding Something was also written with David Wayne as well as radio talk show host George Noory.{{Cite web |title=Someone Is Hiding Something |url=https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/arcade-publishing/9781632207289/someone-is-hiding-something |access-date=2023-02-19 |website=Arcade Publishing |language=en-US}} Belzer's long-time character, John Munch, was also a believer in conspiracy theories, including the JFK assassination. In 2008, Belzer published a novel, I Am Not a Cop!, about a fictional version of himself investigating a murder.{{cite news |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/richard-belzer-dead-homicide-law-order-1235329813/ |title=Richard Belzer, Extraordinarily Smart-Ass as a Comic and a TV Cop, Dies at 78 |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=February 19, 2023 |access-date=February 19, 2023 |last=Koseluk |first=Chris}}

Belzer's first two marriages were to Gail Susan Ross (1966–1972) and boutique manager Dalia Danoch (1976 – c. 1978), both of which ended in divorce. In 1981, in Los Angeles, he met 32-year-old Harlee McBride, a divorcée with two daughters,{{cite news |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1997/02/20/detective-mensch-actor-a-dark-comic-with-a-sweetheart-of-a-soul-richard-belzer-has-found-a-new-life-with-homicide/ |last=Hiaasen |first=Rob |title=Detective Mensch: A dark comic with a sweetheart of a soul, Richard Belzer has found a new life with 'Homicide' |work=The Baltimore Sun |location=Baltimore, Maryland |date=February 20, 1997 |access-date=October 7, 2012 |archive-date=October 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007231013/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1997-02-20/features/1997051147_1_richard-belzer-john-munch-mcbride |url-status=live}} Bree Benton and Jessica.Hiaasen, [https://web.archive.org/web/20121007232405/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1997-02-20/features/1997051147_1_richard-belzer-john-munch-mcbride/3 p. 3] McBride, who had been seen in Playboy magazine four years earlier in that year's sex-in-cinema feature, in conjunction with Young Lady Chatterley,{{cite magazine |title=Sex Stars of 1977 |magazine=Playboy |date=December 1977}} was appearing in TV commercials for Ford and acting in free theater when she met Belzer at the suggestion of a friend. The two married in 1985{{Cite news |last=Castro |first=Peter |date=March 29, 1993 |title=Richard Belzer: His Wit Honed by Anger, He's a Comic Who Has Gone from Stand-Up to Homicide |volume=39 |work=People |issue=12 |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20110060,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917234501/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20110060,00.html |archive-date=September 17, 2008}} RE Ross: "In 1971, a year before the end of his six-year marriage to Gail Susan Ross...." RE Danoch: "In 1976. Belzer worked himself into a second marriage with Dalia Danoch, a boutique manager, but it ended in divorce less than two years later." and had a home in Bozouls, France.

Belzer survived testicular cancer in 1983. His 1997 HBO special and comedy CD Another Lone Nut pokes fun at this medical incident, as well as his status as a well-known conspiracy theorist.

On March 27, 1985, four days before the first WrestleMania, Belzer repeatedly requested on his TV talk show Hot Properties that professional wrestler Hulk Hogan demonstrate a wrestling move. Hogan applied a front facelock, which caused Belzer to pass out, and he hit the back of his head on the floor when released.{{Cite web |date=November 12, 2009 |title=Hulk Hogan, Richard Belzer, Mr. T — Infamous Accident Live On TV 1984 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7n_SHrK408 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211118/i7n_SHrK408 |archive-date=November 18, 2021 |url-status=live |website=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}{{Better source needed|date=February 2023}} After waking up, Belzer was dazed, lacerated and briefly hospitalized.{{cite magazine |last=Corliss |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Corliss |date=April 15, 2001 |title=Hype! Hell Raising! Hulk Hogan! |magazine=Time |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,966187,00.html |url-status=live |access-date=July 8, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629010403/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,141573,00.html |archive-date=June 29, 2011}} He later sued Hogan for $5 million and settled out of court for $400,000 in 1990. Belzer refers to the settlement in his 1997 HBO stand-up special Another Lone Nut, revealing it helped him pay for a home in Beaulieu-sur-Mer called the "Chez Hogan" or "Hulk Hogan Estate".{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/19/arts/television/19xp-richard-belzer-dead.html |title=Richard Belzer, Detective Munch on 'Law & Order: S.V.U.,' Dies at 78 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=February 19, 2023 |access-date=February 19, 2023 |last=Traub |first=Alex |url-access=limited}}

Belzer's father and brother both died by suicide, in 1968 and 2014, respectively. His cousin is actor Henry Winkler.{{cite web |url=https://www.tvguide.com/galleries/surprising-celebrity-family-1073313/ |title=Check out the stars you didn't know were related |website=TV Guide |access-date=November 13, 2013 |archive-date=February 10, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210071438/http://www.tvguide.com/galleries/surprising-celebrity-family-1073313/ |url-status=live }}

On February 19, 2023, Belzer died from complications of respiratory disease in Bozouls, France at the age of 78.{{cite news |url=https://apnews.com/article/celebrity-obituaries-henry-winkler-laraine-newman-richard-belzer-81475aef06cf541ec01afaf3e5029fb6 |title=Richard Belzer, stand-up comic and TV detective, dies at 78 |publisher=Associated Press |date=February 19, 2023 |access-date=February 19, 2023 |last=Coyle |first=Jake}}

Many paid tribute to Belzer including Christopher Meloni, Mariska Hargitay, Ice-T, and Dick Wolf.

• UFOs, JFK, and Elvis: Conspiracies You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Believe, {{ISBN|0-345-42918-4}}
• How to Be a Stand-Up Comic, {{ISBN|0-394-56239-9}}
• I Am Not a Cop!: A Novel, {{ISBN|1-4165-7066-7}}
• I Am Not a Psychic!, {{ISBN|1-4165-7089-6}}
• Dead Wrong: Straight Facts on the Country's Most Controversial Cover-Ups, {{ISBN|1-6160-8673-4}}
• Hit List: An In-Depth Investigation into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination, {{ISBN|978-1620878071}}
• Someone Is Hiding Something: What Happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370?, {{ISBN|978-1632207289}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Official website|http://www.ibelz.com}}
• {{IMDb name|1938}}
• [http://www.nbc.com/Law_&_Order:_Special_Victims_Unit/bios/Richard_Belzer.html NBC Biography]
• {{Discogs artist|Richard Belzer}}

{{Air America radio stations}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belzer, Richard}}

Category:1944 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:20th-century American comedians

Category:20th-century American Jews

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:21st-century American comedians

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:21st-century American male actors

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:American conspiracy theorists

Category:American expatriates in France

Category:American male comedians

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:American stand-up comedians

Category:American television talk show hosts

Category:Comedians from Connecticut

Category:Dean College alumni

Category:Jewish American comedians

Category:Jewish American male actors

Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers

Category:Jewish male comedians

Category:Male actors from Bridgeport, Connecticut

Category:People from Alpes-Maritimes

Category:Male actors from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Category:People from Aveyron

Category:Male actors from Occitania (administrative region)

Category:Writers from Bridgeport, Connecticut

Category:Jews from Connecticut

Category:Comedians from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur