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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 stated he died early Tuesday morning, peacefully in his sleep whereas at residence, based on the publicity agency The Agency 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 stated in a press release. “He will be missed forever.” The household has requested privateness throughout this time.
Despite 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 finest 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 Long, Rhea Perlman, Kelsey Grammer, John Ratzenberger, Kirstie Alley and Woody Harrelson. It would spin off one other megahit in “Frasier” and was nominated for an astounding 117 Emmy Awards, profitable 28 of them.
The forged of ‘Cheers’ poses for a photograph on set in 1993. (Back row L-R) Ted Danson as Sam Malone, Rhea Perlman as Carla Tortelli, Woody Harrelson as Woody Boyd, Kelsey Grammer as Dr. Frasier Crane (Front row L-R) John Ratzenberger as Cliff Clavin, Tom Berenger as Don Santry, Kirstie Alley as Rebecca Howe, Shelley Long as Diane Chambers, George Wendt as Norm Peterson.
Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal through Getty Images
Wendt, who spent six years in Chicago’s famend Second City improv troupe earlier than sitting on a barstool on the place the place everyone is aware of your title, 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 informed 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 finest comedy collection in its first season. Some 80 million individuals would tune in to look at its collection finale 11 years later.
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Wendt turned a fan favourite in and out of doors the bar — his entrances had been cheered with a heat “Norm!” — and his wisecracks all the time 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.
While the beer the forged drank on set was nonalcoholic, Wendt and different Cheers forged members have admitted they had been tipsy on May 20, 1993, after they watched the present’s ultimate episode then appeared collectively on The Tonight Show in a stay 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 informed the Beaver County Times 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 Variety — and had visitor spots on TV reveals 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.
Pictured: (L-R) Chris Farley as Todd O’Connor, Robert Smigel as Carl Wollarski, Mike Myers as Pat Arnold, George Wendt as Bob Swerski throughout “Bill Swerski’s Super Fans” skit on SNL in 1991.
Raymond Bonar/NBCU Photo Bank
Second profession on stage
But 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 and Funnyman.
“A, it’s by far the most fun, but B, I seem to have been kicked out of television,” Wendt informed the Kansas City Star in 2011. “I overstayed my welcome. But theater suits me.”
Wendt had an affinity for taking part in 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 Guy 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 High School, 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 University in Kansas City and graduated, after majoring in economics.
He discovered a house at Second City 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 informed 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 acquired drunk at 16, on the World’s Fair in New York.
His beer data was poured into the ebook Drinking With George: A Barstool Professional’s Guide 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.”
Part autobiography, half beer drinker’s information, the ebook had Wendt’s conversational tone and lists, reminiscent of “Five Good Bar Bets,” ″77 Toasts from Around the World” and ”(More Than) 100 Ways to Say That You’re Drunk,” which alphabetically lists 126 synonyms from “annihilated” by “zozzled.”
He is survived by his spouse, Second City alum Bernadette Birkett, who voiced Norm’s never-seen not-so higher half, Vera, on Cheers.
“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,” National Comedy Center Executive Director Journey Gunderson stated in a press release.
