Cheers He runs out of one of his usual customers. Actor George Wendt, who embodied the Afable Norm Peterson in the successful comedy of the NBC, died this Tuesday at home while sleeping. Death has been confirmed by his family. “He was an adorable father, a very dear friend and a confidant for all those who were lucky enough to meet him. We will always miss him,” relatives say in a statement. Wendt was 76 years old.
Wendt was originally from southern Chicago, an urban area of a lot of character that undoubtedly helped him play that average American that closed his day drinking several beers at the neighborhood bar. His origins as an actor were in that same city, in the famous improvisation comedy group Second City, with which he spent six years and released celebrities from the 80s such as Dan Aykroyd, Mike Myers, Bill Murray, John Candy, John Belushi and, later, Tina Fey.
That training allowed him to have the tables to work in several plays such as Lakeboatwritten by David Mamet, and in Artof the French playwright Yazmina Reza, who had a staging on Broadway. In 2007 he wore a staging of Twelve men in strugglethe drama written by Reginald Rose for television in 1954.
His first credits on the big screen were for Robert Altman and Clint Eastwood, for whom he performed very small papers. In 1980 it appeared in the films My Bodyguard y Somewhere in Time, A success with Christopher Reeve and Christopher Plummer. In 1981 he was hired for an episode of Taxithe famous sitcom by Judd Hirsch, Danny Devito and Andy Kaufman who was written and directed by who would be the creators of Cheers: Glen Charles, the Charles y James Burrows.
His destination changed on September 30, 1982, when the pilot episode of Cheers. Wendt only pronounced one word in this: “beer.” It was the first time that the United States appeared within that Boston bar owned by a former Red Sox who had recovered from alcoholism. The audiences lived in that small space for ten years, until in May 1993 the end of the series was broadcast in an event seen by 120 million people.
His character, Norm Peterson, was a counter who entered through the door, was received with joy by the waiters, and let out a joke before joining the rest of the clientele in the bar. Wendt was one of the three actors that appeared in the 273 episodes during the decade in which the program remained in the air. The others were Ted Danson, who played Sam Malone, the owner of the bar, and Rhea Perlman, who gave life to another of the frequent drinkers of Cheers.
Wendt was forced during the filming to have a hot and gas without gas with a pinch of salt. His character had a certain dramatic arc in which he changed professions over the years, but never abandoned the habit of passing through the bar. “Actually, to play my role, it only needed to be a good drinker who knew how to sit in a stool,” he said in 1993. In those years he was hired by the Miller company to promote the drink he was always linked to.
He was nominated in the category of secondary actor to the Emmy in six consecutive years, between 1984 and 1989. In each gala he went empty hands. In the last one, which rewarded the seventh season, he was defeated by Woody Harrelson, his partner in the comedy program. Harrelson joined the cast from the fourth season and remained to the eleventh. They also appeared in Cheers actors such as Kelsey Grammer and Kirstie Alley, who died in 2022.
Wendt arrived in October 1948 to a family of nine children. His father was a real estate entrepreneur and his mother was a housewife. He had an education in Jesuit schools and was received as an economist at a University of Missouri of the same religious order. He spent three years in Europe. When he returned he was determined to become a comedy actor. He could do it in Second City, where he met his wife Bernardette Birkett in 1978.