Law & Order star Richard Belzer dead at 78

Law & Order: SVU star Richard Belzer has reportedly died aged 78, at his home in Bozouls in Southern France.

The beloved actor starred in the show for 15 seasons as Detective John Munch. He also starred in Homicide: Life on the Street for seven seasons.

Belzer had a long and diverse career including as a comedian.

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It was fellow comedian Laraine Newman who first broke the news to the public via Twitter, recalling their time together on Saturday Night Live.

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She shared on Twitter: "I'm so sad to hear of Richard Belzer's passing. I loved this guy so much. 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."

Belzer's representatives and family are yet to issue a statement.

Julie Martin, who also served as a writer on Homicide: Life on the Street, tweeted: "Missing Richard Belzer today.

"Working with him on Homicide to SVU has been a hilarious, surprising and always joyful experience. I'm sure he's giving 'em all a lot of laughs upstairs."

TV host Jon Stewart tweeted: "Rest in Peace Belz. No better time than sitting back at Catch watching Richard wreck crowd after crowd...a master."

Belzer was born in Connecticut in the US in 1944, beginning his career as a comedian. He moved to New York City to continue his career where he performed stand-up and began appearing on TV shows and in movies.

While he was never a main cast member on SNL, Belzer made regular guest appearances on the show in the late 1970s and behind the scenes he was responsible for warming up the crowd for the live audience.

His earliest movie roles included The Groove Tube, Fame, Café Flesh, Night Shift, and Scarface.

It was in 1993 that Belzer landed his breakout role as Detective John Munch on Law & Order: SVU. The character of Detective Munch appeared on 11 different shows across six networks including on Law & Order spinoffs on NBC, The X-Files on Fox, The Beat on UPN, The Wire on HBO and Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC.

More recently he appeared as Munch on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix as well as other comedies like Arrested Development on Fox and 30 Rock on NBC.

After being written out of Law & Order: SVU in 2016 after 325 episodes, Belzer retired from acting. He authored four non-fiction books about conspiracy theories, many of which reportedly reflected his personal beliefs about the death of US President John F Kennedy and UFOs.

He survived testicular cancer in 1983.

Belzer was married three times and is survived by his third wife, model and actress Harlee McBride whom he married in 1985.

He is survived by McBride and his two stepdaughters.