Richard Belzer Biography

Richard Jay Belzer (born August 4, 1944) is an American stand-up comedian, author, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as John Munch, whom he has portrayed as a regular cast member on the NBC police drama series Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as in guest appearances on a number of other series.

Early life and education

Belzer was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He grew up in a Jewish family. After high school, Belzer worked as a reporter for the Bridgeport Post. He attended what was then Dean Junior College in Franklin, Massachusetts.

Career

Stand-up

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 costar of the ersatz TV show "The Dealers."

Belzer was the audience warm-up comedian for Saturday Night Live in its premiere season and made three guest appearances on the show in 1976 and 1978. He also opened for musician Warren Zevon during his tour supporting the release of his album Excitable Boy.

Film

In the late 1970s and early '80s, Belzer became an occasional film actor. He is noted for small roles in Fame, Night Shift, and Scarface. He appeared in the music videos for the [[Mike + The Mechanics]] song "Taken In" and for the Pat Benatar song "Le Bel Age",as well as the Kansas video "Can't Cry Anymore" . He had a movie role as an LAPD detective in A Very Brady Sequel.

Radio

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. stations from 1973 to 1975. 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 Valentine".

In the late 1970s, he cohosted Brink & Belzer on 660AM WNBC radio in (New York City). He has been 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.

Television

In the 1990s, Belzer appeared frequently on television. He was a regular on The Flash. 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"99) and the New York"based Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999"), portraying police detective John Munch in both series. Barry Levinson, executive director 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. 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.

In addition, he's 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 ten different television shows played by a single actor. These shows were on five 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)

Belzer has portrayed Det. Munch for twenty-one consecutive seasons on Homicide (seven seasons) and Law & Order: SVU (14 seasons), which beat the record for most consecutive seasons set by Kelsey Grammer (as Dr. Frasier Crane on Cheers and Frasier from 1984 to 2004) and James Arness (who portrayed Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke from 1955 to 75) for the record of twenty consecutive seasons.

Belzer appeared in several of Comedy Central's televised broadcasts of Friars Club roasts. 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." 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 costars Mariska Hargitay, Christopher Meloni, Ice-T, and Dann Florek; and Law & Order Jerry Orbach.

Belzer voiced the character of Loogie for most of the episode of South Park entitled "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000". He and Brian Doyle-Murray were featured in the tenth-season premiere of Sesame Street.

In August 2012, Belzer appeared as a political commentator on MSNBC's Up with Chris Hayes.

Personal life

Belzer's first two marriages were to Gail Susan Ross (1966"72) and boutique manager Dalia Danoch (1976 " c. 1978), both of which ended in divorce. In 1981 in Los Angeles he met 31-year-old Harlee McBride, a divorcee with two daughters, Bree and Jessica. 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, was appearing in TV commercials for Ford motors and acting in free theater, when she met Belzer at the suggestion of a friend. The two married in 1985. He owns property in the south of France, where he and his wife live when Belzer is not working.

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

On March 27, 1985, days prior to the inaugural WrestleMania, Belzer requested on his cable TV talk show Hot Properties that Hulk Hogan demonstrate one of his signature wrestling moves. After being asked by Belzer, Hogan put Belzer in a front chin-lock, which caused Belzer to pass out. When Hogan released him, Belzer hit his head on the floor, sustaining a laceration to the scalp that required a brief hospitalization.

Belzer sued Hogan for $5 million and settled out of court. On October 20, 2006, on Bubba the Love Sponge, it was claimed (with Hogan in the studio) that the settlement totaled $5 million, half from Hogan and half from Vince McMahon. During his June 23, 2008 appearance on Sirius Satellite Radio's The Howard Stern Show, Belzer suggested that the settlement amount was closer to $400,000. He used the incident in his HBO special Another Lone Nut in his stand-up routine.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1974	The Groove Tube	Rodriguez Leo Batfish The President The Hooker	Independent film
1980	Fame	M.C.
1982	Café Flesh	Loud-mouthed audience member	(uncredited)
	Author! Author!	Seth Shapiro
	Night Shift	Pig
1983	Scarface	M.C. at Babylon Club
1984	Pat Benatar: Hit Videos	Arty/Funny Man (song "Le Bel Age")	Direct-to-video
1986	Pat Benatar: The Visual Music Collection	Collection (1986) (V) Artie the comic ("Le Bel Age")	Direct-to-video
	America	Gypsy Beam	aka Moonbeam
	Charlie Barnett's Terms of Enrollment	Man Reading Paper
1987	Flicks	Stoner (segment 'New Adventures of the Great Galaxy'
1988	The Wrong Guys	Richard 'Belz' Belzer
	Freeway	Dr. David Lazarus
1989	Mike + The Mechanics: A Closer Lookl	Log Cabin Father (video 'Taken In')	Direct-to-video
	The Big Picture	Video Show Host	Direct-to-video
	Fletch Lives	Phil
1990	The Bonfire of the Vanities	Television Producer
1991	The Flash II: Revenge of the Trickster	Joe Kline
	Missing Pieces	Baldesari
	Off and Running	Milt Zoloth
1992	Flash III: Deadly Nightshade	Joe Kline	Direct-to-video
1993	Mad Dog and Glory	M.C./Comic
	Dangerous Game		Cameo appearance
1994	North	Barker
	The Puppet Masters	Jarvis
1995	Not of This Earth	Jeremy Pallin
1996	Girl 6	Caller #4 " Beach
	A Very Brady Sequel	LAPD Detective
	Get on the Bus	Rick
1998	The Bar Channel
	Species II	U.S. President
1999	Jump	Jerry
2003	Pat Benatar: Choice Cuts " The Complete Video Collection	Artie (segment "Le Bel Age")	(uncredited)
2006	Copy That	Richard
2007	BelzerVizion	Richard Belzer	also executive producer
2009	Polish Bar	Hershel
2010	Santorini Blue	Richard	also executive producer

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1975"80	Saturday Night Live	Juror Chevy Chase Himself Museum Visitor	Season 1 episode 1 Season 2 episode 27 Season 3 episode 61 Season 5 episode 106 (uncredited)
1978	Sesame Street	Man in Row Boat #1	Episode: "(#10.1)"
1985	Moonlighting	Leonard	Episode: "Twas the Episode Before Christmas"
1986	Miami Vice	Captain Hook	Episode: "Trust Fund Pirates"
1989	Tattingers		Episode: "Ex-Appeal" aka Nick & Hillary
1990"91	The Flash	Joe Kline	10 episodes
1991	Monsters	Buzz Hunkle	Episode: "Werewolf of Hollywood"
1992	Human Target	Greene	Episode: "Pilot"
1993"99	Homicide: Life on the Street	Det. John Munch	122 episodes, regular cast
1994	Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman	Inspector Henderson	Episode: "All Shook Up" Episode: "Witness" Episode: "Foundling" Episode: "The House of Luthor"
	Nurses	Jesse Wilner	Episode: "Fly the Friendly Skies"
	Bandit: Bandit Bandit	Big Bob	TV film
	Hart to Hart: Crimes of the Hart	Det. Frank Giordano	TV film
1995	Prince for a Day	Bernie Silver	TV film aka The Prince and the Pizza Boy
	The Invaders	Randy Stein	TV film
1996	Pursuits	Mariano	TV film
1996"2000	Law & Order	Det. John Munch	Episode: "Charm City" Episode: "Baby, It's You" Episode: "Sideshow" Episode: "Entitled"
1997	The X-Files	Det. John Munch	Episode: "Unusual Suspects"
1997	Richard Belzer: Another Lone Nut	Himself	HBO comedy special
1997"98	E! True Hollywood Story	Himself	Episode: "Gilda Radner" Episode: "John Belushi"
1999	Mad About You	Detective Sharp	Episode: "Stealing Burt's Car"
1999"present	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Det./Sgt. John Munch	regular cast
2000	Homicide: The Movie	Det. John Munch (NYPD)	TV film based on the television series
	The Beat	Det. John Munch	Episode: "They Say It's Your Birthday"
	South Park	Loogie	Voice Episode: "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000"
	3rd Rock from the Sun	Himself	Episode: "Dick'll Take Manhattan: Part 1"
2005	Law & Order: Trial by Jury	Det. John Munch	Episode: "Skeleton" This is a crossover sequel to the episode "Tombstone" from season 15 of the series Law & Order.
2006	Arrested Development	Himself/Det. John Munch	Episode: "S.O.B.s" (uncredited as himself) Episode: "Exit Strategy"
2008	The Wire	Det. John Munch	Episode: "Took"
2009	Jimmy Kimmel Live!	Det. John Munch	Episode dated October 7, 2009
	Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers	Himself

Books

• 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!, 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