Bye to Bosson and Belzer

I recently discovered that episodes of the 1987-1989 ABC-TV comedy-drama series Hooperman, starring John Ritter, are available on YouTube. Although I hadn’t seen it in decades, I remembered that the show—created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher (L.A. Law)—was better than average small-screen fare for its era. A large portion of that credit belongs to Ritter, who plays a perpetually put-upon San Francisco police inspector. However, the show also had a fine supporting cast, including Barbara Bosson, who played the inspector’s divorced boss, Captain Celeste “C.Z.” Stern.

So I was saddened to read that Bosson passed away on February 18, aged 83. According to Variety, Bosson was born in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, in 1939, and her first (uncredited) feature film role found her playing a nurse in the 1968 Steve McQueen film Bullitt. Two years later, she married TV writer-producer Bochco, who proceeded to cast her regularly in his own programs. “From 1981 to 1986,” Variety explains, “Bosson was a main cast member on Hill Street Blues, portraying Fay Furillo, the ex-wife to police captain Frank Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti). She received five Emmy nominations for best supporting actress in a drama series throughout her tenure on the series. She was nominated in the same category in 1995 for Murder One, which shows the life of prominent attorney Theodore Hoffman at a Los Angeles firm, in which Bosson played Miriam Grasso.” Over the years, Bosson appeared as well on Mannix, Alias Smith and Jones, McMillan & Wife, Richie Brockelman, Private Eye, Cop Rock, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and NYPD Blue.

Bochco and Bosson divorced back in 1997. Their son, TV director-producer Jesse Boscho, is quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying his mother died “peacefully ... [and] surrounded by her family and loved ones.” No specific cause for her demise was reported.

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Let us bid farewell, too, to comedian, actor, and author Richard Belzer, who is best known for playing police detective John Munch on the 1993-1999 NBC-TV crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street, and then reprising that role in several Law & Order franchise series. The New York Times says Belzer, 78, died on February 19 at his home in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France. A novelist friend, Bill Scheft, has said the actor’s final words were, “Fuck you, motherfucker”

“As Detective Munch,” the Times’ Alex Taub writes, “Mr. Belzer was brainy but hard-boiled, cynical but sensitive. He wore sunglasses at night and listened to the horror stories of rape victims in stony silence. He was the kind of cop who made casual references to Friedrich Nietzsche and the novelist Elmore Leonard. He spoke in quips; when accused of being a dirty old man, he responded: ‘Who are you calling old?’ In a 2010 interview with AARP: The Magazine, Mr. Belzer …described his television alter ego as ‘Lenny Bruce with a badge.’”

A Washington Post obituary notes:

Richard Jay Belzer was born on Aug. 4, 1944 in Bridgeport, Conn. He struggled with what he called a “bitter childhood”: His abusive mother died when he was 20, and his father killed himself four years later. He took on odd jobs, including a stint as a writer for the Bridgeport Post newspaper.

In 1971, Mr. Belzer decided to try out for a part in an underground theater production ... That role launched his career. He took on other jobs as a stand-up comic, including on Saturday Night Live when it was launched in 1975.

Belzer made his film debut in 1974’s The Groove Tube and was later found on the big screen in Fame and The Bonfire of the Vanities. He portrayed a U.S. president in the 1988 science fiction/horror film Species II. In his blog, A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence Towles Canote mentions Belzer’s appearances in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Mad About You, 3rd Rock from the Sun, and 30 Rock.

“While Richard Belzer did play other roles,” Canote concludes, “I think there can be no doubt that he will always be remembered as Detective John Munch. Not only did he play the character for decades, but he played him on multiple shows. And it is largely because of Richard Belzer that John Munch may be one of the greatest television characters of all time. Detective Munch was cynical and sarcastic. His politics veered towards the left and he had a tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. While John Munch might often doubt the overall honesty of the human race, he ultimately cared about his fellow human beings. If he was dogged in pursuing cases, it was because he cared about the victims of those crimes. It is little wonder that audiences loved and still love John Munch.”

READ MORE: “A Hawaii Five-O Scribe Dies,” by Bill Koenig (The Spy Command); “Ted Bell, Adman Turned Author of Best-Selling Thrillers, Is Dead at 76,” by Sam Roberts (The New York Times).