George Wendt

George Wendt
Wendt at the 41st Emmy Awards
Born	George Robert Wendt October 17, 1948 (1948-10-17) (age 61) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1980–present

George Robert Wendt (born October 17, 1948) is an American actor, best known for the role of Norm Peterson on the television show Cheers.

Biography

Early life

Wendt was born in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois and attended Campion High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. He was expelled from the University of Notre Dame after a semester with a 0.00 GPA. He was more successful at the Jesuit Rockhurst College in Kansas City, where he graduated with a B.A. in economics.

Career

The handprints of George Wendt in front of Hollywood Hills Amphitheater at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.

Wendt is a 1975 alumnus of The Second City, which he discovered shortly after college. A viewing had inspired him to join and on his first day of employment, he showed up promptly at 11:30AM as he was instructed. The woman working there handed him a broom and said "Welcome to the theater, kid"; thus, his first job in show business was sweeping the floors. Second City was also where he met his future wife, Bernadette Birkett, who later played the voice of Norm's never-seen wife, Vera, on Cheers. In 1989, Wendt appeared as the eponymous protagonist in a BBC TV dramatization of Ivan Goncharov's novel Oblomov. He has also appeared twice on the original British edition of Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

George Wendt appeared in the 1980 movie My Bodyguard. He played a handyman working behind the check in counter at the Ambassador East Hotel in Chicago (now the Omni Ambassador East).

In 1981 George appeared on an episode of the TV series Taxi as an exterminator.

George Wendt first appeared on the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live in a Season 11 (1985–1986) episode where he shared hosting duties with director Francis Ford Coppola. In the early 1990s, Wendt made cameo appearances on several episodes of SNL as Bob Swerski, one of the Chicago Superfans (along with castmembers Chris Farley, Mike Myers, Robert Smigel, and one-time host, Joe Mantegna). Also, Wendt is the uncle of current SNL writer and cast member Jason Sudeikis. In 1991, Wendt played the father in Michael Jackson's music video, Black or White. In 1994 he takes role in "Man Of The House" movie as Chet Bronski, the step father of Norman (Zachary Browne), and played on this stage with Chevy Chase, Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Farrah Fawcett. He also played the role of "Old Man Dunphy's" closeted homosexual friend Joey in the 1999 film, Outside Providence.

Wendt has since appeared as himself on Seinfeld and has reprised the character Norm Peterson on the The Simpsons as well as the Frasier episode "Cheerful Goodbyes". In 2003, Wendt appeared as a celebrity fisherman in the music video for Corba Verde's "Riot Industry" along with Rudy Ray Moore (of "Dolemite" fame) and The Minutemen's Mike Watt. He appeared in several episodes of The WB's Sabrina, The Teenage Witch in 2001 as the title character's boss. He also was the host of the A&E reality show, House of Dreams in 2004. In January 2006, Wendt was seen again on television screens as part of the cast of Modern Men.

He has also appear on The Larry Sanders Show as guest on the show. In May 2006, Wendt was seen yet again on television. He made several appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien where he performed short skits. His appearance on Late Night was in all likelihood because the show was having a week long event in his hometown of Chicago. He starred in a 2006 episode of Masters of Horror entitled "Family", directed by John Landis and played Santa Claus in the ABC Family original movie Santa Baby. Wendt performed alongside Richard Thomas in Twelve Angry Men in October 2006 in the Eisenhower Theater in Washington, D.C.. After the show opened, Wendt was interviewed by local movie critic Arch Campbell for a piece on the NBC Washington affiliate WRC. Wendt was asked, "What should people do when they see you around town?" After hesitating for a moment, Wendt held his thumbs up and replied, "If their impulse is to buy me a beer, then by all means, follow that impulse." In Spring 2007, Wendt performed in 12 Angry Men in Los Angeles. Wendt appeared as an American GI in the 2007 Christmas Special episode of British sitcom The Green Green Grass.

George starred in the Broadway play Hairspray as the character of Edna Turnblad until November 2008. He appeared with his former Cheers costar John Ratzenberger as a talent scout on Last Comic Standing during Season 6. He briefly appeared as Santa Claus in A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!.

He guest voiced as "Norm" on Family Guy during the Season 7 episode Three Kings.

On October 1, 2009, Wendt appeared on the Colbert Report the day before the IOC announces which city will host the 2016 Summer Olympics. In their way of supporting Chicago's bid for the games, Wendt and Stephen Colbert humorously insulted the three other bidding cities, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, and Tokyo, all while drinking Chicago's favorite Old Style beer.

Pop culture references

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (October 2009)

Wendt is mentioned in an episode of the animated television series Animaniacs by survey takers who are bothering the Warner siblings Yakko, Wakko, and Dot while they are in a shopping mall. The survey takers go through just about every variation of a question concerning Wendt, beans and movies before the Warners are able to get rid of them.

Wendt is among the thespians who participated in a poster campaign touting live theatre in Chicago. Other celebrities included John Mahoney, John Malkovich, Terry Kinney and Martha Plimpton.

Wendt starred as Private Roche in a 1982 episode of M*A*S*H, where he suffered from having a pool ball stuck in his mouth for much of the episode. In 2009, Wendt continued on to play the father of a leader character in the movie "The Rocker".

Wendt also appeared as the loudmouthed father of Macaulay Culkin's character, in Michael Jackson's "Black or White" music video.

He also starred in the musical Bye Bye Birdie as the hot-headed father of Kim MacAfee.

External links

• George Wendt at the Internet Movie Database
• George Wendt at the Internet Broadway Database
• George Wendt at the Internet off-Broadway Database
• George Wendt at TV.com
• George Wendt cast bio on The WB
• 2009 interview with Bullz-Eye.com