NEW YORK (AP) — George Wendt, an actor with an Everyman appeal who performed the affable, beer-loving barfly Norm on the hit Eighties TV comedy “Cheers” and later crafted a stage profession that took him to Broadway in “Art,” “Hairspray” and “Elf,” has died. He was 76.
Wendt’s household mentioned he died early Tuesday morning, peacefully in his sleep whereas at house, in accordance with the publicity agency The Company Group.
“George was a doting family man, a well-loved friend and confidant to all of those lucky enough to have known him,” the household mentioned in an announcement. “He will be missed forever.” The household has requested privateness throughout this time.
Regardless of a protracted profession of roles onstage and on TV, it was as mild and henpecked Norm Peterson on “Cheers” that he was most related, incomes six straight Emmy Award nominations for greatest supporting actor in a comedy collection from 1984-89.
The collection was centered on lovable losers in a Boston bar and starred Ted Danson, Shelley Lengthy, Rhea Perlman, Kelsey Grammer, John Ratzenberger, Kirstie Alley and Woody Harrelson. It could spin off one other megahit in “Frasier” and was nominated for an astounding 117 Emmy Awards, profitable 28 of them.
Wendt, who spent six years in Chicago’s famend Second Metropolis improv troupe earlier than sitting on a barstool on the place the place everyone is aware of your identify, didn’t have excessive hopes when he auditioned for “Cheers.”
“My agent said, ‘It’s a small role, honey. It’s one line. Actually, it’s one word.’ The word was ‘beer.’ I was having a hard time believing I was right for the role of ‘the guy who looked like he wanted a beer.’ So I went in, and they said, ‘It’s too small a role. Why don’t you read this other one?’ And it was a guy who never left the bar,” Wendt advised GQ in an oral historical past of “Cheers.”
‘Where everyone knows your name’
“Cheers” premiered on Sept. 30, 1982, and spent the primary season with low rankings. NBC president Brandon Tartikoff championed the present, and it was nominated for an Emmy for greatest comedy collection in its first season. Some 80 million folks would tune in to look at its collection finale 11 years later.
Wendt turned a fan favourite in and outdoors the bar — his entrances have been cheered with a heat “Norm!” — and his wisecracks at all times landed. “How’s a beer sound, Norm?” he could be requested by the bartender. “I dunno. I usually finish them before they get a word in,” he’d reply.
Whereas the beer the forged drank on set was nonalcoholic, Wendt and different “Cheers” forged members have admitted they have been tipsy on Could 20, 1993, after they watched the present’s ultimate episode then appeared collectively on “The Tonight Show” in a dwell broadcast from the Bull and Finch Pub in Boston, the bar that impressed the collection.
″We had been ingesting closely for 2 hours however no person thought to feed us,” Wendt advised the Beaver County Instances of Pennsylvania in 2009. “We were nowhere near as cute as we thought we were.”
After “Cheers,” Wendt starred in his personal short-lived sitcom “The George Wendt Show” — “too bad he had to step out of Norm and down so far from that corner stool for his debut stanza,” sniffed Selection — and had visitor spots on TV exhibits like “The Ghost Whisperer,” “Harry’s Law” and “Portlandia.” He was a part of a brotherhood of Chicago Everymen who gathered over sausage and beers and adored “Da Bears” on “Saturday Night Live.” In 2023, he competed on “The Masked Singer.”
Second profession on stage
However he discovered regular work onstage: Wendt slipped on Edna Turnblad’s housecoat in Broadway’s “Hairspray” starting in 2007, and was within the Tony Award-winning play “Art” in New York and London.
He starred within the nationwide tour of “12 Angry Men” and appeared in a manufacturing of David Mamet’s “Lakeboat.” He additionally starred in regional productions of “Death of a Salesman,” “The Odd Couple,” “Never Too Late” and “Funnyman.”
“A, it’s by far the most fun, but B, I seem to have been kicked out of television,” Wendt advised the Kansas Metropolis Star in 2011. “I overstayed my welcome. But theater suits me.”
Wendt had an affinity for enjoying Santa Claus, donning the well-known crimson outfit within the stage musical “Elf” on Broadway in 2017, the TV film “Santa Baby” with Jenny McCarthy in 2006 and within the doggie Disney video “Santa Buddies” in 2009. He additionally performed Father Christmas for TV specials by Larry the Cable Man and Stephen Colbert.
“I think it just proves that if you stay fat enough and get old enough, the offers start rolling in,” the actor joked to the AP in his Broadway dressing room.
Born in Chicago, Wendt attended Campion Excessive College, a Catholic boarding faculty in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, after which Notre Dame, the place he hardly ever went to class and was kicked out. He transferred to Rockhurst College in Kansas Metropolis and graduated, after majoring in economics.
He discovered a house at Second Metropolis in each the touring firm and the mainstage.
“I think comedy is my long suit, for sure. My approach to comedy is usually not full-bore clownish,” he advised the AP. “If you’re trying to showboat or step outside, it doesn’t always work. There are certain performers who almost specialize in doing that, and they do it really well. But that’s not my approach.”
Cheers for beer
He had a lifelong affiliation with beer. He had his first style as an 8-year-old and bought drunk at 16, on the World’s Honest in New York.
His beer information was poured into the guide ″Ingesting With George: A Barstool Skilled’s Information to Beer,” co-written with Jonathan Grotenstein. One line: “Will Rogers once said he never met a man he didn’t like. I feel the same about beer.”
Half autobiography, half beer drinker’s information, the guide had Wendt’s conversational tone and lists, similar to “Five Good Bar Bets,” ″77 Toasts from Across the World” and ”(Extra Than) 100 Methods to Say That You’re Drunk,” which alphabetically lists 126 synonyms from “annihilated” by means of “zozzled.”
He’s survived by his spouse, Second Metropolis alum Bernadette Birkett, who voiced Norm’s never-seen not-so higher half, Vera, on “Cheers”; his youngsters, Hilary, Joe and Daniel; and his stepchildren, Joshua and Andrew.
“From his early days with The Second City to his iconic role as Norm on ‘Cheers,’ George Wendt’s work showcased how comedy can create indelible characters that feel like family. Over the course of 11 seasons, he brought warmth and humor to one of television’s most beloved roles,” Nationwide Comedy Middle Government Director Journey Gunderson mentioned in an announcement.
