Richard Belzer, who was known for his role on the hit TV show “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” has died at the age of 78, a friend of the actor told Fox News Digital on Sunday.
Many people paid tribute to Belzer on social media, and many stories about the well-known actor came out. Fans of Belzer and Hulk Hogan, a famous pro wrestler, talked about the event that led to a lawsuit.
In the middle of the 1980s, Belzer was the host of the show “Hot Properties.” In one episode, Hogan and Mr. T were on the show to talk about the first WrestleMania. Hogan put Belzer in a front chinlock to show that pro wrestling wasn’t fake. The actor passed out and fell to the ground.
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Belzer would be knocked out for a short time, and Hogan would help him get up. The Hollywood Reporter says that Belzer would sue Hogan, Mr. T, Vince McMahon, and WWE (at the time, it was called World Wrestling Federation) over the incident.
Reports say that Belzer and the company would settle for $400,000 in 1990, which Belzer would use to buy a house in France. Belzer gave the house the name Chez Hogan. Belzer told broadcaster Roy Firestone in 1990 –
“He came very close to killing me.”
“I was told by a sports medicine expert that if I had fallen a few inches either way I could have been crippled for life, I could have been dead.”
In 1993, Belzer played Munch for the first time on NBC’s “Homicide: Life on the Street.” He later played Munch again on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”
People magazine said that he was in almost 330 episodes of “SVU” from 1999 to 2013, and he also made two cameos in 2014 and 2016.
His wife, Harlee McBride, will carry on after him. In 1985, they got married. They don’t have any biological children together, but McBride has two, Jessica and Shannon Benton, from a previous marriage.
