Actor, comedian and author Richard Belzer, who was known for portraying a cynical detective on the long-running “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” TV series, has died, his friends and former publisher said Sunday.
Belzer, 78, died early Sunday “peacefully with family at his side” at his home in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, southeast France, his longtime friend Bill Scheft told HuffPost.
He is survived by his wife, actress Harlee McBride, and his stepdaughters Bree and Jessica Benton, said Scheft.
Tony Lyons, who published one of Belzer’s final books on conspiracy theories, praised him as brave and nonconforming in a statement to HuffPost also confirming his death.
“Richard Belzer was an incredibly brave man and his death is a great loss, especially at a ... time where the mass of men lead lives of sheepish conformity,” said Lyons of Skyhorse Publishing.
Fellow actress and comedian Laraine Newman, who worked with Belzer at NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” when he was a comic and she was an original cast member, was among the first to react to the news of Belzer’s death.
“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,” she tweeted Sunday.
Belzer was best known professionally for his portrayal of Detective John Munch in more than 300 episodes of the NBC “Law & Order” drama. He also portrayed Munch in the 1990s police drama “Homicide: Life in the Street,” which was based in Baltimore.
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