Richard Belzer, TV detective and stand-up comedian, dies at 78 – Nationwide

Richard Belzer, the longtime humorist who grew to become certainly one of TV’s most indelible detectives as John Munch in “Murder: Life on the Road” and “Regulation & Order: SVU,” has died. He was 78.

Belzer died Sunday at his residence in Bozouls in southern France, his longtime pal Invoice Scheft advised The Hollywood Reporter. Comic Laraine Newman first introduced his demise on Twitter. The actor Henry Winkler, Belzer’s cousin, wrote “Relaxation in peace Richard.”

For greater than 20 years and throughout 10 sequence — together with appearances on “30 Rock” and “Arrested Improvement” — Belzer performed the wise-cracking murder detective susceptible to conspiracy theories. Belzer first performed Munch on a 1993 episode of “Murder” and final performed him in 2016 on “Regulation & Order: SVU.”

Belzer by no means auditioned for the function. After listening to him on “The Howard Stern Present,” government producer Barry Levinson introduced Belzer in to learn for the half.

“I’d by no means be a detective. But when I had been, that’s how I’d be,” Belzer as soon as mentioned. “They write to all my paranoia and anti-establishment dissidence and conspiracy theories. So it’s been plenty of enjoyable for me. A dream, actually.”