BEVERLY — George Wendt, the actor who portrayed one in every of tv’s most legendary supporting characters, has died.
Selection studies Wendt, who portrayed unforgettable barfly Norm Peterson on the Eighties sitcom “Cheers,” died at his Los Angeles house on the age of 76.
Wendt was born within the Beverly neighborhood in 1948, to a household of 9 siblings. His sister Kathy is the mom of “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis, his nephew. After faculty, Wendt joined Second Metropolis in 1975. He made his display screen debut in Robert Altman’s “The Marriage ceremony” in 1978, and shortly racked up visitor appearances on sitcoms within the early ’80s like “M*A*S*H,” “Taxi,” “Alice” and “Cleaning soap.”
However Wendt in the end turned best-known for his function as Norm, a hardcore common of the namesake bar in “Cheers,” which ran from 1982 to 1993. Wendt was a six-time Emmy nominee throughout that run. He was well-known for his display screen entrances, with innumerable one-liners following the standard group greeting of the bar crowd shouting his identify (“Nooooorm!”), similar to “Can I draw you a beer, Norm?” “No, I do know what they seem like,” or “It’s a dog-eat-dog world, Sammy … and I’m sporting Milk Bone underwear.”
Wendt was additionally a member of the “Da Bears” Superfans on “Saturday Evening Reside” as host Bob Swerski, sitting in for his brother Invoice (Joe Montegna), who was often in restoration from a coronary heart assault. The obsession with Chicago sports activities made good sense for the South Sider. Wendt and fellow Superfan Robert Smigel additionally made appearances at main sporting occasions just like the Chicago Bulls championship celebrations within the Nineties.
After “Cheers” went off the air, Wendt continued to look in numerous films and TV Exhibits, from “Prime Chef” to “Portlandia” to “Household Man”; his IMDB listing stands at 172 credit over 5 many years. He had an eponymous short-lived sitcom in 1995, enjoying a “Automobile Discuss”-like character, and performed in opposition to kind that very same 12 months as a assassin in an episode of “Columbo.” Extra just lately, he was revealed because the Moose on “The Masked Singer” in 2023.
Wendt met his spouse Bernadette Birkett at Second Metropolis; they married in 1978. She appeared on one “Cheers” episode as his date to a celebration and was additionally the voice of Norm’s heard-but-never-seen spouse Vera. The couple had three kids.
Additional details about Wendt’s reason behind dying has not but been launched. However we wouldn’t be shocked if many Chicagoans loved a mug of draft beer in his honor tonight.
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