Cheers star George Wendt has died at age 76, RadarOnline.com can report.
The legendary actor performed fashionable barfly Norm Peterson on the beloved sitcom, identified for his large stomach and stomach laughs.
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George Wendt has died.
His household confirmed Wendt died peacefully in his sleep at house early Tuesday morning.
They stated in an announcement: “George was a doting household man, a well-loved good friend and confidant to all of these fortunate sufficient to have identified him.
“He might be missed perpetually. The household has requested privateness throughout this time.”
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Wendt starred as Norm Peterson in all 275 episodes of Cheers, which aired from 1982-93 on NBC.
He was a fan favourite as Norm within the bar the place everyone is aware of your identify, and earned six consecutive Emmy nominations for excellent supporting actor in a comedy sequence.
After Cheers turned its lights out for good, NBC thought of a derivative that includes Wendt and co-star John Ratzenberger, who performed mailman Cliff Clavin, as bar buddies, but it surely by no means superior.
As a substitute, he headlined his personal sequence for CBS in 1995, aptly titled The George Wendt Present, taking part in the co-owner of a Wisconsin storage and co-host of a call-in radio present about automotive restore. Nevertheless the comedy lasted simply six episodes.
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Wendt was born on October 17, 1948 in Chicago, the place he was considered one of 9 kids. He attended the College of Notre Dame earlier than leaping to Jesuit Rockhurst Faculty the place he graduated with a level in economics.
Whereas dwelling in Chicago, he joined the famed improv troupe The Second Metropolis. There he met and married his spouse, Bernadette Birkett, in 1978. The couple had three kids.
Birkett was additionally the unseen voice of Norm’s spouse, Vera, in Cheers.
Wendt can be the uncle to former Saturday Night time Dwell star Jason Sudeikis. Whereas by no means an official forged member of the late evening present, Wendt might be perpetually remembered donning a thick Dit-ka moustache and sitting round a bar desk with stars Chris Farley, Mike Myers and Robert Smigel within the fan-favorite Chicago Superfans sketches.
There was even a latest name to revisit the characters after Chicago native Robert Prevost was named Pope Leo XIV.
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Wendt as soon as stated he by no means minded when Cheers followers would greet him with a well-recognized “Norm!” – simply as his fellow fictional barflies would greet him every episode. It probably helped that they had been at all times greater than prepared to purchase him a spherical.
In 2009, he co-wrote the e book Ingesting With George: A Barstool Skilled’s Information to Beer.
Introducing the e book, he wrote: “I’m a easy man, I don’t ask for a lot. Give me a pleasant snug chair, a cool breeze, a ballgame on the radio and an ice-cold beer, and I couldn’t be happier.
“Reality be advised, if it got here all the way down to it, I may dwell with out the chair. A cool breeze is sweet, but it surely isn’t precisely necessary for an excellent time. And there are many occasions once I don’t have entry to a ballgame.
“However a world with out beer? I don’t know if that’s the type of world I need to dwell in.”