George Wendt:
Actor of Warmth, Precision, and Chicago Stage Grit
George Wendt, who died peacefully in his sleep on May 20, 2025, at age 76, will always be Norm to the millions who tuned in week after week to Cheers. But if you stop there—if you freeze him forever on that Boston barstool, beer in hand—you miss the man entirely.
Yes, Cheers made him a household face. Norm Peterson wasn’t just a sitcom role; he was an American archetype: deadpan, loyal, world-weary, funny without ever reaching for it. Wendt played that role like a jazz drummer who knows exactly when to hit the snare. Not overplayed, never undercooked. The timing, the eyes, the shrug—effortless, which, of course, meant it was anything but. He earned six consecutive Emmy nominations for it from 1984 to 1989, and none of them were flukes.
But let’s not reduce a whole career to a single seat at a bar.
Wendt's Second City Headshot
Before the soundstage, before the catchphrases, George Wendt was a Chicago stage rat. He cut his teeth at The Second City—where improv wasn’t just entertainment but boot camp. He joined in 1975, back when the troupe still ran like a rowdy, cerebral lab experiment. He learned from killers. He met his wife, Bernadette Birkett, there, and together they built a life steeped in performance.
It would’ve been easy for someone in Wendt’s position to let Broadway be a vanity project—show up, collect applause, leave. But that was never his way. He approached theater with humility and workmanlike intensity. He starred in Yasmina Reza’s Art as a replacement from December 1998 to May 1999, stepping into a role that demanded finely tuned emotional control—not his typical wheelhouse on paper, but he nailed it. He took over the role of Edna Turnblad in the Broadway run of Hairspray from October 2007 to January 2008, and he didn’t camp it up. He grounded her, found the human being inside the joke. That’s hard to do. He did it without fanfare.
Wendt with Hairspray co-stars Ashley Parker Angel (Link) and Ashley Spencer (Amber)Later came Elf: The Musical and a production of Twelve Angry Men—the latter giving him a crack at one of the most morally charged pieces in the American theatrical canon. These weren’t vanity stops. They were returns to form, to the stage’s demands of rhythm, restraint, and total presence.
Wendt in Elf: The Musical
Then there was Minsky’s at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in 2009—a new musical by Charles Strouse, the Broadway legend behind Bye Bye Birdie and Annie. The show was about burlesque kingpin Billy Minsky, and Wendt played the moralistic politician father trying to shut him down. It was a perfect role for him: the uptight authority figure who wasn’t entirely wrong but wasn’t entirely right either. The production had been cursed—literally years in development hell, dead directors, abandoned by producers. But Wendt showed up and did the work. Professional to the bone.
The Night They Raided Minsky'sWendt never seemed hungry for celebrity. If anything, he seemed slightly bewildered by it. He moved through Hollywood without succumbing to it. In interviews, he was amiable, wry, always deflecting credit. He didn’t market himself as Serious or Method. But look closely and you saw the craft. He had that rare ability to be present in a scene without seizing it—he let the moment breathe, let the ensemble cook.
George Wendt in Funnyman at Northlight Theatre, Chicago, 2015
Born in Chicago in 1948, Wendt was raised in a Catholic family, the son of a Navy officer and a secretary. He attended Notre Dame until being expelled after receiving a 0.00 GPA during the first semester of his junior year—reportedly due to living in an off-campus apartment without transportation during winter. That kind of failure would’ve sunk a lesser ego. He rebounded, transferred to Rockhurst College in Kansas City, and eventually found his way to The Second City. The pivot wasn’t a self-fulfillment arc—it was more accidental, the way Chicago actors used to stumble into greatness by saying yes to the right people at the right time.
He leaves behind his wife of over 40 years, Bernadette Birkett, and their three children. He also leaves behind a vast, weirdly underappreciated body of work that belongs as much to the American stage as it does to the sitcom rerun.
George Wendt played “Norm” for over a decade. But in theater, he played for keeps. The difference matters.
