Richard Belzer. THR. Tributes.
I hate reducing an actor to just one role, and I know he had other accomplishments as a comedian (who got dropped on his head by Hulk Hogan, and bought a house in France as a result) and an author. But man, what a role.
With Munch, Mr. Belzer found phenomenal success. In 2013, when the character was written out of “SVU” — as the “Law & Order” spinoff is often called — Mr. Belzer wrote in The Huffington Post that he had appeared as Munch in more than 500 hours of programming on 10 different shows.
The character’s run began in 1993, on “Homicide: Life on the Street,” and included guest appearances on “Sesame Street” and “30 Rock.”
At his retirement, Mr. Belzer was often described as the actor with the longest run playing the same character on television, as well as the actor who had played the same character on the largest number of different shows.
Gerald Fried, composer. He did music for “Roots” and for a minor SF TV series from the 1960s.
I was a junior in high school when Roots aired, and it was one of the significant events of the time. Not only a show about slavery and it’s effects on those who were taken captive, but it was also simply very well made. The novel by Alex Haley was one that I never did get to read, but it must have been pretty special.
On a side note, I saw while reading the obit for Gerald Fried that Tom Sizemore is in the hospital after suffering a brain aneurism.
I almost forgot, Mr. Fried was mentioned as being an oboe player, and a tenor sax player, with him attending Julliard as an oboe major. I was primarily a tenor sax player, but my daughter started to learn oboe in 5th grade band. I borrowed it from her, and learned to play it, as another one of the instruments that I have played. She hated it, and quit after only one year. I must say, for someone who has never played a reed instrument, it probably would not be the easiest instrument to learn.