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George Robert Wendt Jr. was born on Oct. 17, 1948 in Chicago, one of nine children of George Sr., a real estate agent and Navy officer, and Loretta (Howard) Wendt, whose grandfather was Tom Howard, a celebrated photojournalist who had taken one of the most famous tabloid cover shots of his era, sneaking a miniature camera into the death chamber at Sing Sing prison in 1928 to capture a photo of a convicted murderer, Ruth Snyder, in the electric chair.
Mr. Wendt, who despite his German surname was largely Irish, attended the University of Notre Dame, but without distinction: he dropped out with a 0.0 grade point average after settling in an off-campus apartment without a car in the middle of a Midwestern winter. In 1971, he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at Rockhurst University, a Jesuit school in Kansas City, Mo.
Despite that sober degree, he had little interest in the suit-and-tie world. “I knew that I didn’t want to do something that I hated,” Mr. Wendt told The Evening Sun. “It was a process of elimination. Salesman? No. Doctor? No. Lawyer? No. Acting sounded pretty good.”
At Second City, he met his future wife, Bernadette Birkett, who later provided the voice of Norm’s unseen wife, Vera, on “Cheers.” His run with the troupe lasted until 1980.
Once in Hollywood, he won a regular role as a gym teacher on the short-lived CBS comedy “Making the Grade.” Later that year, he secured the role that would launch him to stardom.
Even so, it took awhile for “Cheers” to enter the television stratosphere, he recalled in a 2014 interview with The Irish Examiner.
“The tipping point was the very beginning of Season 3,” Mr. Wendt said. “We were behind ‘The Cosby Show’ in the lineup, and I guess people were too lazy to change the channel back in those days. Bill Cosby was a hit right out of the box, a No 1 hit as soon as it hit the air, so we sort of rode in the draft of Bill Cosby.”
Norm was soon a regular presence in living rooms around the nation, bellying up to the bar in the fictional Boston tavern Cheers and trading quips with the likes of Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger), Sam Malone (Ted Danson), Woody Boyd (Woody Harrelson) and Diane Chambers (Shelley Long).
He was known for his entrances, always punctuated with a zinger:
Sam: “Hey, what’s going on, Normie?”
Norm: “It’s my birthday, Sammy. Give me a beer, stick a candle in it and I’ll blow out my liver.”
His considerable girth became a source of jokes on the show, but it also helped make Norm a relatable guy that viewers would feel like sidling up to at their neighborhood bar.
“One nice thing about being fat for a living is that you don’t worry about losing weight or dieting,” Mr. Wendt once said. “I don’t know how much I’d have to lose before it was noticeable. Anyhow, if I lost 100 pounds, people would say, ‘Oh, no, not another fat comedian wanting to be a leading man!’”
The wildly popular series finally came to a close in 1993. “It was a hard call,” Mr. Wendt told the British newspaper The Independent in 1998. “It seemed initially to defy logic because of the job security, the quality of the work and the fantastic salaries, but it was absolutely the correct decision.”
“You always want to leave them begging for more,” he added.
He is survived by his wife, Ms. Birkett; his siblings, Kathy Sudeikis, Nancy Healy, Loretta Jolivette, Marti Doherty and Paul Wendt; his children, Hilary, Joe and Danny Wendt; his stepchildren, Josh and Andrew Trossman; and one grandchild.
Mr. Wendt stayed busy after “Cheers.” He appeared in the 1994 film “ Man of the House,” starring Chevy Chase. (Mr. Wendt had made a memorable appearance opposite him in the 1985 mystery comedy “Fletch.”)
He briefly had his own star vehicle playing a garage mechanic with a radio program in the “The George Wendt Show,” which ran for only eight episodes in 1995.
Over the years, he appeared in a raft of television movies and shows, including his oft-imitated appearances in the running “Saturday Night Live” skit about working-class Chicago football fans pledging allegiance to “Da Bears.”
He also reprised his indelible Norm character in a number of shows, including “The Simpsons,” “Wings,” “Frasier” and “Family Guy.”
Mr. Wendt once said that he felt a lot of similarities with Norm, although, he added, he was a lot happier — and clearly more ambitious.
Like Norm, he was never one to turn down a cold one. “I was a beer drinker long before ‘Cheers,’” he once said. “When I put a couple of six packs on top of my grocery shopping cart, people are pleased. I tell ’em I’m taking them home to rehearse.”
