George Wendt, famous for playing the character Norm Peterson on the sitcom Cheers, has passed away at the age of 76. For 11 seasons on Cheers, Wendt played the beer guzzling barfly Norm who hung out at a Boston tavern to get away from the wife as he bellied up to the bar to drink beer and talked sports. While making fun of the mailman Cliff Clavin, his best friend in one of the best sitcoms of all time. He acted with an all-star cast with plenty of big names from Hollywood that went on from Cheers and had great careers on television or the big screen. Wendt was born in Chicago and raised on the south side. He got his start into his epic acting career at Second City which many solid comedians have come out of from the Windy City. Wendt started his career on Saturday Night Live and went on to have a great career on the big screen, of course television. He even had his moments on the stage on Broadway and let’s not forget the music video, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,”

I write a sports blog and George Wendt has played some great characters that are involved in the games we love as a fan. Who does not have a guy like Norm Peterson? A guy that bellies up to one of your favorite watering holes and loves to discuss sports. Maybe your Norm Peterson is a guy that plays on your beer league team in a variety of sports and then you recap the game on a bar stool afterwards. George Wendt played one of the Super Fans on Saturday Night Live as a character named Bob Swerski.

The Super fans on SNL were fans of the Chicago Bears and Mike Ditka. I imagine George Wendt grew up a Bears fan in Chicago. The skit had these guys sitting at a table drinking beer, eating food, and bragging about Da Coach who was Ditka at the time. They always predicted Da Bears would trounce whatever team. It was a talented cast of actors starting with Joe Mantegna playing Bill Swerski, Chris Farley playing Todd O’Connor, Mike Myers playing Pat Arnold, while Robert Smigel played Carl Wollarski. They all did these skits in a Chicago accent as well.

In 1986, George Wendt played a character named Buster in a movie called Gung ho with legendary actor Michael Keaton. The plot of this movie was a small town automotive plant is acquired by a Japanese carmaker. George Wendt played Buster, a car plant worker that does not like the way the Japanese run things. The Japanese management try things like a simple game of softball to mend the fences with the American workers. The Japanese management show up to the pick up game in uniforms. Buster’s line is “They look like Yankees. I hate ’em already.” Buster was not the same type of character as the sweetheart of Norm Peterson. Instead Buster is an angry plant worker who thinks running over a guy on the Japanese team during the game sounds like a good idea at the time.

In the sitcom Cheers which George Wendt is going to be most remembered by, he played Norm. Norm Peterson was like the Iron man Cal Ripken Jr. as he played in every single episode of all 11 seasons. Many episodes the gang at Cheers watch the big game on television rooting for the local Boston teams. In one episode, Norm gets a Celtics jacket from NBA superstar Kevin McHale on his birthday. McHale played with Larry Bird and helped the Celtics win multiple championships. He appeared in two episodes of Cheers. Former Boston Red Sox player Wade Boggs showed up to Cheers, and the gang did not believe he was the real Boggs. They chased him out of the bar & then pantsed him. All because Gary sent him and they were thinking he sent a fake Boggs to fool the Cheers patrons.

Speaking of Gary… the bar was always at war versus Gary’s Old Towne Tavern. These wars were different sports at which Gary’s always prevailed. Norm participated in the basketball, bowling, and softball against Cheers’ heated rival. The war between the two bars went beyond the field, ice, or court which made this rivalry epic. The picture above shows Norm and his sidekick, Cliff, taking over Gary’s satellite feed during a heavyweight title fight talking Shakespeare.

George Wendt was nominated for six Emmy nominations for 6 straight years for outstanding supporting actor as Norm from 1984-89. He lost to Patrick Harrington Jr. from the show One Day at a Time who played the character Schneider & won it in 1984.

Then John Larroquette, who played Dan Fielding from Night Court, beat out Norm and George Wendt 4 times,

Then Wendt would lose to one of his own guys. That being his pal from the show, as Woody Harrelson who played Woody Boyd took home the award in 1989.

I never heard a bad thing about George Wendt. He grew up in the Beverly neighborhood on the south side of Chicago which is not far from the suburb of Evergreen Park, Illinois where I hail from. We have been to some of the same neighborhood places that have been around for decades. He grew up watching Notre Dame football games as his father would take him to see the Irish play. Notre Dame around my parts has a ton of followers. Wendt actually went to Notre Dame University and was expelled for bad grades as he lived off campus in his Junior year attending the Catholic institution. I met George Wendt when he was on his book signing tour in Naperville, Illinois.

I purchased his book named Drinking with George. It’s all about beer, good times, and life in general. He signed my book as well. My favorite show has always been Cheers. I graduated high school on a Thursday night back on May 20th, 1993. I really did not want to go to my ceremony that year, on that day, because Cheers’ last episode was on. I did not trust the VCR to automatically record it. Norm is a guy I would definitely want to hang out and drink beer with. I know some big guys that are softies like him. He was a gentle giant and knew how to have a good time.

The line about wearing milk bone underwear has to be the best line from Norm Peterson entering the bar. George Wendt passed away in LA at his home from natural causes. I read his wife Bernadette was the actual voice of Vera who we never see in Cheers, but was Norm’s wife. Wendt would pass away on May 20th, 32 years ago after that last episode of Cheers. I would like to make a toast to Norm, a great beer guzzler barfly who drank to his teams whether good, bad, or ugly. CHEERS!!! RIP and thanks for the memories.