Richard Belzer, actor known for his role on the American crime drama television series Law & Order: SVU, died early Sunday at his home in Bozouls, France, writer Bill Scheft, his friend, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 78.
“He had lots of health issues, and his last words were, ‘Fuck you, motherfucker,’” Scheft said. Belzer’s manager Eric Gardener also confirmed that the actor ‘passed away peacefully’.
Belzer played Detective Munch on NBC’s ‘Homicide: Life on the Street’ from 1993 to 1999. He was then casted in the TV movie ‘Homicide: The Movie’ in 2000. He also appeared as a detective in four episodes of ‘Law & Order’.
The 78-year-old appeared as Munch on ‘Law & Order: SVU’.
Along with his filmography, Belzer was also known for his dark sunglasses look. However, the actor did not wear it for fashion. His eyes are sensitive to light, according to an entry on the official website of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.
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“By the way, Richard always wears sunglasses— not to be cool, but because his eyes are very sesnsitive to the light. He doesn’t need sunglasses to be cool! See if your parents have a copy of Billy Joel’s album Turnstiles (Billy is Jewish, by the way!). There’s Richard on the cover, in the upper right, wearing his shades,” it says.
“Richard’s road to fame was not very straight. As a kid, he was a paperboy, but he was kicked out of every school for being a smart aleck. Then he went to college and was kicked out of that for leading too many protests. His dad said to try the Army, but that didn’t work, either. He left the Army (at least he didn’t get kicked out of that!) and went into comedy,” it continues.
