George Wendt, best known as Norm Peterson on Cheers, has died at the age of 76.
According to the actor’s family, he died peacefully in his sleep on Tuesday morning, May 20. His death was confirmed by a representative who shared a statement. “George was a doting family man, a well-loved friend and confidant to all of those lucky enough to have known him. He will be missed forever. The family has requested privacy during this time.”
In addition to being one of the regular bar patrons on the NBC comedy, Wendt is also famously the uncle of comedy star Jason Sudeikis. During his years on Cheers, Wendt was nominated for six Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Emmys, and he delighted viewers across 11 seasons of the sitcom, which aired between 1982 and 1993.
Originally hailing from Chicago, Wendt earned his degree in economics after traveling in Europe and North Africa as a young man, before returning to the Windy City to enroll in the Second City comedy troupe’s acting workshop, which he performed with from 1974 to 1980. He went on to feature in the NBC comedy pilot Nothing But Comedy, which brought him to Los Angeles and landed him his feature debut with My Bodyguard.
After he found widespread success with Cheers, Wendt went on to star in films like Dreamscape, Fletch, and Ron Howard‘s Gung Ho. Additionally, he starred alongside Robert De Niro and Annette Bening in Guilty By Suspicion, and had roles in the films Forever Young, The Man of the House, and The LoveMaster.
Despite his movie roles, Wendt is still best known for his television work, which, outside of Cheers, included The George Wendt Show on CBS and The Naked Truth on NBC.
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