‘Saturday Night Live’ Tributes Richard Belzer
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Actor and comedian Richard Belzer was remembered on Saturday Night Live with a special title card following his death on February 19.
Belzer passed on at the age of 78 from complications of unspecified circulatory and respiratory conditions.
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Belzer was the warm-up comedian for Saturday Night Live and appeared multiple times playing bit parts during the show’s early seasons. In the show’s premiere episode, which aired on October 11, 1975, Belzer also played a juror in an uncredited role. In Season 2, Belzer famously stood in for Chevy Chase for an episode while Chase was having surgery.
He is most notably known for his portrayal of Detective John Munch in Homicide: Life on the Street, a cop drama series that debuted in 1993. After Homicide wrapped, he began to play Munch on Law and Order: SVU, a role that lasted 20 seasons.
Additionally, longtime SNL producer designer Eugene Lee was also remembered with a title card on Saturday. The 6-time Emmy-winning production designer for the series since 1975 died on February 6 following a brief illness. He was 83.
As the production designer of SNL since the year of its debut, Lee was the longest-serving member of the NBC show’s production staff. Additionally, he served as the production designer for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon from 2014-2018, and numerous SNL specials, among his many achievements.
Throughout his career, Lee was nominated for 18 Emmys, winning 6 including consecutive Emmys for Outstanding Art Direction For Variety Or Nonfiction Programming.
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