The Law & Order Star You Likely Forgot Had A Role On South Park
If you're a television actor and end up playing one character for an extended period, it makes sense that sometimes audiences see you primarily as that person on the screen. Some are lucky enough to play multiple iconic TV roles, like Larry Hagman on "I Dream of Jeannie" and later "Dallas," but frankly, it's miraculous to get cast at all in a main part on a successful television show.
Actor Richard Belzer had the good fortune to play the cynical but compassionate Detective John Munch primarily on both the 1990s NBC cop drama "Homicide: Life on the Street" and later "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." However, in a truly unusual move, Munch also did crossovers with other shows where he'd guest star as Munch. The character established a loose continuity between series as disparate as "The X-Files," "The Wire," and "Arrested Development," before Munch retired in a 2013 "SVU" episode, after appearing in a staggering total of 10 television shows.
Belzer hasn't had many credits on IMDb since "Homicide" that aren't the actor as either Munch or a version of himself. But in 2000, he did get to play a very different role on of the filthiest cartoons of all time.
He was Loogie on South Park
Shortly after "Homicide" was canceled, Richard Belzer guest starred on the "South Park" Season 4 episode, "The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000." Belzer voices the character of "Loogie," a child gangster who runs the "tooth trade" around South Park. He brings Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman to his restaurant because they've accidentally muscled in on his action. He explains how his business is centered around putting teeth under children's pillows, then taking the money parents replace it with. Loogie also intimidates the boys into working for him, but is eventually caught in the act alongside Cartman, ending the tooth racket for good.
Loogie only makes small background appearances after "Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000," but Belzer plays a pretty funny parody of a mobster, especially because Loogie is still a kid and uses a more high-pitched voice around adults. Belzer had been a professional comedian before playing Detective Munch for so long, and it's one of the rare roles that really took advantage of his background before the actor stepped back from acting after 2016.