Richard Belzer
Biography
Richard Belzer was an American actor, comedian and author who came out of the New York stand-up clubs and worked steadily in film, radio and television. In the 1970s he was the warm-up act for Saturday Night Live and appeared as a guest on it four times, and he was one of the players on the National Lampoon Radio Hour. He took minor film roles in Fame (1980), Scarface (1983), Fletch Lives (1989) and Girl 6 (1996) before finding his best-known part, Detective John Munch, whom he played for 23 years on Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He also played Munch on other series, the only case of one actor bringing a fictional character to 11 different shows. In later years he wrote books about conspiracy theories and died in 2023.
78years old at death
- Born Bridgeport
- Died Beaulieu-sur-Mer
- Star sign: LeoThe sign runs July 23 to August 22
- Richard Jay Belzer (birth name)
Movie Career
- Films
- 16
- Career span
- 37 years1980 to 2017
Genres
- Comedy50%, 8 films
- Drama44%, 7 films
- Crime25%, 4 films
- Documentary19%, 3 films
- Action13%, 2 films
First and latest
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A first
Belzer played Det. Munch for 22 consecutive seasons, 7 on Homicide and 15 on Law & Order: SVU. That beat the old primetime live-action record of twenty straight seasons, set by James Arness and Kelsey Grammer.
Big break
Belzer auditioned for Homicide executive producer Barry Levinson, who called him a lousy actor at the first reading and still terrible at the second before Belzer found confidence in the performance.
First role
Belzer worked as the warm-up comic for the audience of Saturday Night Live, and between 1975 and 1980 he also made four guest appearances on the show.
A first
The New York Friars Club and the Toyota Comedy Festival chose Belzer as the honoree of their first roast open to the public, held on June 9, 2001.
Richard Belzer movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
Most often with
Spike Lee directed two of these films, Danny Bilson two. Nine actors appear in two of them each. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
John Goodman's page
Bill Murray's page
Al Pacino's page
Chevy Chase's page
Yaphet Kotto's page
Isaiah Washington's page
All films by Spike Lee
Danny BilsonDirector, 2 films, 1988 to 1991
All films by Danny Bilson
Also two films together3 more actors
- Andre BraugherHomicide: The Movie (2000) and Get on the Bus (1996)
- Kristen WilsonGet on the Bus (1996) and Girl 6 (1996)
- Biff ManardThe Flash II: Revenge of the Trickster (1991) and The Wrong Guys (1988)
When several people share the same number of films, the ones with the most films on Netflix are in the chart.
Box office
What Richard Belzer's films earned in cinemas worldwide.
Combined worldwide box office
$187 million
8 of the 16 films have a worldwide figure.
Of the 16 films: 8 worldwide figure; 4 us gross only; 4 never in cinemas.
- 8Worldwide figure
- 4US gross only
- 4Never in cinemas
Highest grossing
The eight biggest films earned 100% of the total. The bars are drawn to scale.
- 1$66M35.4% of the total
- 2$42M22.5% of the total
- 3$35M18.8% of the total
- 4$13M7.0% of the total
- 5$11M5.9% of the total
- 6$8.6M4.6% of the total
- 7$5.7M3.1% of the total
- 8$4.9M2.6% of the total
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.