The tributes are pouring in to  Law and Order: Special Victims Unit star Richard Belzer from fellow cast mates and his fellow actors and comedians after he died at the age of 78 Sunday.

Mariska Hargitay, the famous lead of SVU who has played Olivia Benson for nearly a quarter century, posted a tribute on her Instagram page.

‘Goodbye my dear, dear friend. I will miss you, your unique light, and your singular take on this strange world,’ she wrote.

‘I feel blessed to have known you and adored you and worked with you, side by side, for so many years. How lucky the angels are to have you. I love you so very much, now and forever.’

Fellow SVU star Christopher Meloni posted a picture of the pair together and simply wrote: ‘Good bye mon ami, I love you.’ He later posted a photo of Belzer and Hargitay together from the show’s early years. 

Ice T, the rap superstar who teamed up with Belzer as Fin Tutuola, shared his thoughts on Belzer’s death Sunday afternoon.

‘Highs and Lows… After one of the most amazing weeks of my life. I wake up to the news I lost my friend today. Belz is gone.. Damn it!’

Ice added: ‘But remember this..’When you ARE having real fun and are Truly Happy. ENJOY it to the fullest! Cause Pain is inevitably coming.’ I’ll miss you Homie.’

The actor started off as a comedian, but gained fame for his role as Detective John Munch, first on Homicide Life on the Streets and then on SVU. He also appeared on the original Law and Order and Trial by Jury.

In total, Belzer played Munch on 11 different shows over the course of 22 years, including the X-Files, Arrested Development, The Wire and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. 

He died in at his home early Sunday in Bozouls in southwest France after battling a series of health issues.

‘His last words were, ‘F**k you, motherf**ker,” writer Bill Scheft told The Hollywood Reporter.

His death was first announced by Saturday Night Live alumna Laraine Newman, who tweeted: ‘I’m so sad to hear of Richard Belzer’s passing. I loved this guy so much.

‘He was one of my first friends when I got to New York to do SNL,’ she revealed. ‘We used to go out to dinner every week at Sheepshead Bay for lobster.’

Newman said Belzer was ‘one of the funniest people ever’ and a ‘master at crowd work.’ 

Comedian Billy Crystal tweeted, ‘Richard Belzer was simply hilarious. A genius at handling a crowd. So sad he’s passed away.’

And actor Adrian Martinez wrote that Belzer ‘was one of the first stars to encourage me to keep going by saying after my work on #LawAndOrderSVU. ‘I smell an #Emmys!”

He went on to call Belzer a ‘funny, classy man.’ 

Marc Maron added to the outpouring of tributes, writing, ‘Richard Belzer died. He was an original. One of the greats, babe. I loved the guy. RIP.’

Belzer was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he said he began his foray into comedy by trying to make his physically abusive mother laugh.

‘I had to make my mom laugh or I’d get my a** kicked,’ he told People Magazine in 1993. 

But his ‘uncontrollable wit’ got him into trouble in school, and his time at Massachusetts’ Dean Junior College came to a sudden end when he was expelled from organizing on-campus protests.

Prior to making his career in Hollywood, Belzer held a number of odd jobs, including as a reporter for the Bridgeport Post and as a census taker. 

He finally decided to pursue comedy after his father committed suicide in 1968, responding to an ad in The Village Voice to audition for Channel One, an East Village comedy troupe.

Belzer would go on to perform the bits he had honed growing up — including imitations of Marlon Brando, Jerry Lewis and Bob Dylan — at a variety of Manhattan comedy clubs. 

By 1972, Belzer was a featured player on National Lampoon Radio Hour with costars John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray and Gilda Radner. 

Several of the skits were later released on albums, including several bits where Belzer played a pithy call-in talk show host named Dick Ballentine.

He also had small film roles and made three guest appearances on Saturday Night Love from 1975 through 1980, and was its first comedian.

‘It was thrilling in those days to be a part of that because — regardless of what anyone said — a lot of people didn’t know how that was going to be accepted,’ he told NPR in 1989. ‘This was like giving the kids the keys to the store — to have all of these ‘anti-establishment’ people have a TV show on a network. 

‘So they asked me to do some sketches and do the warm-ups. I just kind of did what I did in nightclubs, I talked to the audience, I did some of my material, but I tried to improvise and ad lib as much as I could.

‘And it was fascinating, doing that in a television studio and not in a nightclub.’ 

He also hosted a short-lived Lifetime talk show, called Hot Properties. 

The actor had requested that the professional wrestler appear on his show in 1985, just days before the inaugural WrestleMania. 

When he asked Hogan to show him one of his signature moves, Hogan put Belzer in a chin lock, which caused him to pass out. Then when Hogan finally released him. Belzer hit his head on the floor, sustaining a laceration to the scalp that required a brief hospitalization.

He sued Hogan for $5million, and they settled out of court. 

‘He came very close to killing me,’ Belzer said in 1990. ‘I was told by a sports medicine expert that if I had fallen a few inches either way, I could have been crippled for life. I could have died.’