Belzer was born on August 4, 1944, to a Jewish family in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He described his mother as frequently physically abusive, and he claimed that his comedy career began when he tried to make his mother laugh so she wouldn’t abuse him and his brother. Belzer worked as a reporter for the Bridgeport Post after graduating from Fairfield Warde High School.
Belzer was expelled from Dean College, then known as Dean Junior College, in Franklin, Massachusetts.
Belzer moved to New York City after his first divorce, where he lived with singer Shelley Ackerman and began working as a stand-up comic at Pips, The Improv, and Catch a Rising Star. He was a member of the Channel One comedy troupe that satirized television and inspired the cult film The Groove Tube, in which Belzer played a costar on the ersatz TV show The Dealers.
Belzer was the Saturday Night Live audience warm-up comedian and appeared three times on the show between 1975 and 1980. He also opened for musician Warren Zevon on his tour in support of his album Excitable Boy.
Belzer became an occasional film actor in the late 1970s and early 1980s. A younger Richard Belzer can be seen in a short skit on Sesame Street in a season 9 episode in 1978 when two young men attempt a picnic and boat ride only to be foiled by a dog who eats their food. He is best known for his minor roles in Fame, Café Flesh, Night Shift, and Scarface. He appeared in the music videos “Taken In” by Mike + The Mechanics, “Le Bel Age” by Pat Benatar, and “Can’t Cry Anymore” by Kansas. In A Very Brady Sequel, he played an LAPD detective.
Richard Belzer’s Last Words At Death: What were Richard Belzer’s last words?
‘Law and Order’ actor Richard Belzer has died aged 78 after battling a series of health issues – and his last words were “F*** you, mother f*****”. “His last words were, ‘F*** you, mother f*****,’” writer Bill Scheft told The Hollywood Reporter.