John Munch
| John Munch | |
|---|---|
| Law & Order character | |
 |
|
| First appearance | "Gone for Goode" (HLOTS) "Payback" (SVU) |
| Last appearance | "Forgive Us Our Trespasses" (HLOTS) "Fashionable Crimes" (SVU) |
| Portrayed by |
Richard Belzer Joseph Perrino (teen) David Rudman (Muppet) |
| Time on show |
HLOTS: 1993–1999 SVU: 1999–2014, 2016 |
| Seasons |
HLOTS: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 SVU: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 |
| Credited appearances | 122 episodes (HLOTS) 4 episodes (L&O) 1 episode (The X Files) 326 episodes (SVU) 1 episode (The Beat) 1 episode (TBJ) 1 episode (Arrested Development) 1 episode (The Wire) 2 episodes (30 Rock) 459 episodes (total) |
| Succeeded by | Olivia Benson (as Sergeant) |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | Johnny (in childhood) Munchkin (as Baltimore detective) |
| Occupation |
BPD Detective (HLOTS) NYPD Detective (SVU) NYPD Sergeant (SVU) |
| Title | Homicide Detective (HLOTS) Special Victims Unit Detective (SVU seasons 1–8) Special Victims Unit Sergeant (SVU seasons 9–15) Cold Case Sergeant (SVU season 14) DA Investigator (SVU season 15- present ) |
| Family | Pete Munch (father) Bernard Munch (brother) David Munch (brother) Andrew Munch (uncle) Lee Munch (cousin) |
| Partner |
Stanley Bolander (HLOTS: seasons 1–3) Megan Russert (HLOTS: season 4) Mike Kellerman (HLOTS: season 6) Tim Bayliss (HLOTS: season 7) Brian Cassidy (SVU: season 1) Monique Jeffries (SVU: season 1) Fin Tutuola (SVU: seasons 2–8, 10–12) |
John Munch is a fictional character played by actor Richard Belzer. Munch first appeared on the American crime drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street on NBC. A regular through the entire run of the series from 1993-1999, Munch is a cynical detective in the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide unit, and a firm believer in conspiracy theories. He is originally partnered with Det. Stanley Bolander (Ned Beatty). Munch is based on Jay Landsman, a central figure in David Simon's true crime book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.
On the cancellation of Homicide in 1999, Belzer was offered a regular role as Munch on the Law & Order spin off, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He appeared in the first fifteen seasons of that series from 1999-2014, and occasionally as a guest thereafter. On SVU, Munch becomes a senior detective in the New York Police Department's Special Victims Unit, and is first partnered with Brian Cassidy (Dean Winters), followed by Monique Jeffries (Michelle Hurd), and Fin Tutuola (Ice-T). In the ninth season premiere, Munch is promoted to the rank of Sergeant and occasionally takes on supervisory functions within the department. In season 14, Munch is temporarily reassigned to the Cold Case Unit, after solving a decade-old child abduction case in the episode "Manhattan Vigil." He returns to the squad in "Secrets Exhumed," in which he brings back a 1980s rape-homicide cold case for the squad to investigate. In the season 15 episode, "Internal Affairs," SVU Captain Donald Cragen informs Detective Olivia Benson that Munch has submitted his retirement papers, stating that a recent case (portrayed in the episode "American Tragedy") had hit him hard. In the following episode, "Wonderland Story," Cragen and the squad throw Munch a retirement party, where past and present colleagues and family members celebrate his career. At the conclusion of the episode, Munch returns to the precinct to gather his belongings, where he and Cragen shake hands as Cragen remarks, "you had one hell of a run, Sergeant Munch." Munch has returned, post retirement, to help his colleagues in the fifteenth-season finale "Spring Awakening" and the seventeenth-season episode "Fashionable Crimes".
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Wikipedia