Belzer was beloved as Detective John Munch, first on “Homicide Life on the Streets” and then “Law & Order SVU.” He played the role for 22 years in total. Munch appeared on the original “Law & Order” and “Trial by Jury,” as well. Belzer played him on a total of 11 different TV series and six prime time shows, setting records for popularity and appearances.
Well, damn! He was always my favorite on the old SVU.
May his memory be for a blessing. 
I’m doing just fine, thanks for asking.
Cause of death: Hulk Hogan strangled him. Took a while for the full effects to manifest.
I never watched all the cop shows, but I was vaguely aware he played Munch for a long time. Enough that I laughed when he turned on up Arrested Development investigating the Bluth company.
Dang.
Funny thing is, a lot of people are going to see the news and think “He was a comedian?”
I never liked him as a comedian and was leery when he was cast in “Homicide: Life on the Street,” but I came to really like the character and he was the perfect guy to play Munch.
Never watched any of the “L&O” series but I’m sure he was fine in those too. I always thought it was fascinating that one actor could get so much mileage out of the playing one character.
I liked him in The Groove Tube. “I’m da fuckin’ President!” Never paid much attention to him after that. Recently learned he and Henry Winkler are (were) cousins.
I think I knew him first from Moonlighting. I don’t think I ever saw him as a comedian.
How many shows are in the same universe because Munch is in all of them?
So sad, I liked him every time he appeared as Munch.
My favorite line of his, from L&O: A suspect is being questioned and says to Munch: “Don’t patronize me.” (pronounced “pay-tron-ize”). Munch snaps back, “It’s patronize.” (pronounced “pah-tron-ize”). I perfect way to show sometime you don’t give a fuck about what that person thinks. I’ve used the same line since then a few times, with great effect.
Saw him sometime probably in the early 90s at Summerfest in the comedy tent. He was still doing old Ronald Reagan jokes and was pretty awful.
Liked better as an actor in the crime dramas.
Shows the character of John Munch appeared on:
- Homicide: Life on the Street—119 out of 122 episodes in the series
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit—242 out of 325 episodes in the series
- Homicide: The Movie—television movie
- Law & Order—four episodes: “Charm City”, “Baby, It’s You” (part 1), “Sideshow (Part 1)”, and “Entitled (Part 2)”
- Arrested Development—one episode: “Exit Strategy”
- The X-Files—one episode: “Unusual Suspects”
- The Beat—one episode: “They Say It’s Your Birthday”
- Law & Order: Trial by Jury—one episode: “Skeleton (Part 2)”
- The Wire—one episode: “Took”
- American Dad—one episode: “Next of Pin”, Detective Munch shows up at the end of the episode to recruit Steve to join him as a detective after being impressed by Steve’s detective work at the bowling alley.
- 30 Rock—two episodes: “¡Qué Sorpresa!”, the characters are watching an SVU episode, with dialogue written and action shot specifically for 30 Rock. Richard Belzer also appears as the actor playing Munch in “Last Lunch”, part one of 30 Rock 's series finale, when Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) lands a guest role on SVU as a corpse.
- Jimmy Kimmel Live!—one episode: October 7, 2009. Richard Belzer was interviewed as himself, then does an impromptu scene as Munch with Kimmel and Joel McHale.[46]
- Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt—one episode: “Kimmy Goes to the Doctor!”, the characters are watching a fictional Law & Order spinoff episode on their television.[47]
- A Muppet version of Munch appeared in the Sesame Street sketch “Law & Order: Special Letters Unit” where he was portrayed by David Rudman.
- Munch makes a cameo appearance on the 1993 Paul Shaffer album The World’s Most Dangerous Party.
- An artwork version of Munch appears in the 2016 comic book Spider-Man/Deadpool #6.[48]
- An unseen Munch is mentioned, by Detective Chief Inspector John Luther, as an NYPD SVU contact on episode 5 of the UK crime drama Luther. Notably, DCI Luther is played by Idris Elba, who played Stringer Bell in the HBO drama The Wire, where Munch previously cameoed.
- On a 2021 episode of the podcast Quality Time, Munch is portrayed in an improvised scene from Homicide by the episode’s guest, Tom Myers.[49]
I thought that it was a stroke of genius to cast Belzer – who spoke and wrote extensively about conspiracies, cover-ups, and UFOs – as Jarvis in the 1994 movie adaptation as Jarvis, who turns out to be one of the people being controlled by the aliens.
He’ll be missed.
That’s interesting that he lived in the South of France.
A while back, a friend of mine met him during downtime on a location set for Homicide in Fells Point. When my friend asked him about the Hulk Hogan episode, Belzer replied, “Let’s just say I got a nice house in France out of it”.
Typical old school Belzer, his last line was “Fuck you, motherfucker.”
I knew him as a stand up first. He was pretty big back when you needed to have HBO to see the new wave of stand up comedians. He often headlined shows for young comedians at Rodney Dangerfield’s comedy club… He had a lot of one liners that probably wouldn’t fly today.
NSFW
Summary
“Unwed mothers, suck dick next time.”
He was great on Homicide and his X-Files role. Never watched any of the L&O stuff. He was pretty crude, they must have dialed him back quite a bit for that.
The thing I remember about his cameo in The Wire is that he’s in the background of a scene at a bar, talking to the bartender about running a bar. He never interacts with any of The Wire cast, is never mentioned by name, and is only in the scene briefly, but it’s obviously Munch.
Ah, that’s sad — but as mentioned, he managed from step from the standup boom of the 80s into a fascinating acting career with a character that ended up connecting quite a universe. A very good run.
But now there’s a report that his death is a hoax.
A conspiracy surrounding his death, how fitting. Belzer is chuckling as the UFO flies him away.
He probably started the rumor himself from the Afterlife. Hehe.