{"id":118572,"date":"2025-05-21T01:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T01:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/118572\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T01:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T01:57:10","slug":"george-wendt-actor-who-played-norm-on-cheers-dies-at-76-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/118572\/","title":{"rendered":"George Wendt, actor who played Norm on &#8216;Cheers,&#8217; dies at 76"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">George Wendt, the actor best known for playing Norm Peterson on the long-running sitcom &#8220;Cheers,&#8221; has died. He was 76.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">A family representative confirmed the news to ABC News on Tuesday and said that Wendt &#8220;died peacefully in his sleep while at home.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;George was a doting family man, a well-loved friend and confidant to all of those lucky enough to have known him,&#8221; the rep said in a statement. &#8220;He will be missed forever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Wendt earned six Emmy nominations for his role on the NBC comedy series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Born on Oct. 17, 1948, in Chicago, Wendt began his career in comedy at The Second City theater.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Prior to &#8220;Cheers,&#8221; he starred in a few roles on television, including &#8220;M*A*S*H,&#8221; &#8220;Taxi&#8221; and &#8220;Soap&#8221; before his big break in &#8220;Cheers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl vBqtr KrDt itslR zFTjo hakZw HlUVI \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/george-wendt-2-gty-gmh-250520_1747771109852_hpMain.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>George Wendt as Norm Peterson in an episode of &#8220;Cheers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Paul Drinkwater\/NBCU via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Wendt starred in all 275 episodes of &#8220;Cheers&#8221; from when the show first aired in 1982 to its final episode in 1993.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">In a 2021 interview with <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagomag.com\/chicago-magazine\/may-2021\/george-wendt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chicago Magazine,<\/a> Wendt recalled the first time he auditioned for &#8220;Cheers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;I needed to look like a guy who wanted to have another beer,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The actor added that he was exactly like Norm, with the character having &#8220;better writing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Following the success of &#8220;Cheers,&#8221; Wendt starred in the short-lived sitcom &#8220;The George Wendt Show&#8221; in 1995.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Wendt also appeared in several episodes of &#8220;Saturday Night Live,&#8221; &#8220;Sabrina the Teenage Witch&#8221; and &#8220;George Lopez.&#8221; He reprised his role as Norm in an episode of the &#8220;Cheers&#8221; spinoff &#8220;Frasier.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">On &#8220;SNL,&#8221; he starred in the popular recurring sketch &#8220;Bill Swerski&#8217;s Superfans,&#8221; alongside Chris Farley, Mike Myers and Robert Smigel, which lampooned Chicago sports fans.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl vBqtr KrDt itslR zFTjo hakZw HlUVI \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/george-wendt-gty-gmh-250520_1747770910001_hpMain.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>George Wendt attends the &#8220;Cheers Reunion&#8221; panel during the 12th Season of ATX TV Festival at ACL Live on June 02, 2023 in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Rick Kern\/WireImage via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">His film credits included the 1985 Chevy Chase comedy &#8220;Fletch,&#8221; the 1991 period drama &#8220;Guilt by Suspicion,&#8221; alongside Robert De Niro, and the 1992 romantic drama &#8220;Forever Young&#8221; with Mel Gibson. He also notched cameo appearances in &#8220;The Little Rascals&#8221; and &#8220;Spice World.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">He starred in several television films, including &#8220;Alice in Wonderland&#8221; in 1999, &#8220;Strange Relations&#8221; in 2001, &#8220;Santa Baby&#8221; in 2006 and more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Wendt married his wife, Bernadette Birkett in 1978. The duo met while working at Second City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">They shared a daughter named Hilary and two sons, Joe and Daniel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">Wendt was also the uncle and godparent of actor Jason Sudeikis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Wendt, the actor best known for playing Norm Peterson on the long-running sitcom &#8220;Cheers,&#8221; has died. He&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,203,53058,77,1490,53059,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-118572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-celebrity-deaths","10":"tag-deceased","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-obituaries","13":"tag-passed-away","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114543346013040504","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}