By Steve Gorman
(Reuters) – Comic actor George Wendt, best known for his Emmy-nominated supporting role as the beer-bellied barfly Norm on the long-running hit NBC television sitcom “Cheers,” died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 76.
The passing of the Chicago-born performer was announced in a statement from his publicist, Melissa Nathan, who said his family confirmed that he died peacefully in his sleep in the early morning at home.
No other details about the circumstances or cause of his death were given.
“George was a doting family man, a well-loved friend and confidant to all of those lucky enough to have known him,” the statement said. “He will be missed forever.”
Wendt got his showbiz start in the Second City improvisational comedy troupe of his native Chicago in the 1970s and went on to appear in small roles in various prime-time TV series during the 1980s, including “M*A*S*H,” “Taxi,” and “Soap.”
He landed his first gig as a TV series regular in 1982 on the short-lived CBS comedy “Making the Grade,” which lasted just six episodes before it was canceled.
But he was most famous for his signature role as the beer-quaffing accountant Norm Peterson – as amiable as he was portly – during the entire run of “Cheers,” which aired in U.S. prime time from 1982 to 1993.
Set in a fictional Boston neighborhood bar “where everybody knows your name,” the series launched the careers of such stars as Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson, and spun off another long-running NBC sitcom, “Frasier,” starring Kelsey Grammer.
Norm was often the good-natured comic foil of his bar-stool companion and drinking buddy, the know-it-all mailman Cliff, played by John Ratzenberger. The Norm character earned Wendt six consecutive Emmy Award nominations.
Just months before the show ended its run, Wendt and Ratzenberger sued the show’s producer, Paramount Pictures, challenging a licensing deal that sought to market their likenesses as a pair of chatty life-size robots in a chain of “Cheers”-like airport bars.
The case, pitting intellectual property rights claimed by the studio against the actors’ rights to exclusive control over use of their own likenesses for profit, bounced through the federal court system for years before being denied a hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000. The case ultimately was settled for undisclosed terms.
The popularity of the Norm character helped fuel Wendt’s career for decades to come, as he appeared in dozens of supporting roles or guest spots in film and TV shows, mostly comedies, sometimes as himself or reprising his Norm character.
Among the most memorable of his off-“Cheers” body of work were eight appearances as a Chicago sports superfan in a recurring sketch on “Saturday Night Live,” employing a spot-on South Side accent to humorous effect.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Portland, Oregon; Editing by Rod Nickel)
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