43 Facts About George Wendt

1.

George Wendt is best known for playing Norm Peterson on the television sitcom Cheers, which earned him six consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

2.

George Wendt played the role in the short-lived spin-off The Tortellis and in an episode of Wings, which was made by the same creators.

3.

George Wendt's parents were Loretta Mary and George Robert Wendt, an officer in the Navy and a realtor.

4.

George Wendt attended Campion High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.

5.

George Wendt was expelled from the University of Notre Dame after he received a 0.00 GPA the first semester of his junior year.

6.

George Wendt is a 1975 alumnus of The Second City, which he discovered shortly after college.

7.

In 1982, George Wendt landed his first role as a series regular on the CBS sitcom Making the Grade, which was created by Gary David Goldberg.

8.

From 1982 to 1993, George Wendt appeared as Norm Peterson in all 275 episodes of Cheers.

9.

George Wendt played the role in the short-lived spin-off The Tortellis and in an episode of Wings, which was made by the same creators.

10.

In 1989, George Wendt appeared as the eponymous protagonist in a BBC TV dramatization of Ivan Goncharov's novel Oblomov.

11.

George Wendt had roles opposite Robert De Niro in 1991's Guilty by Suspicion and with Mel Gibson in 1992's Forever Young.

12.

The George Wendt Show aired from March through April 1995.

13.

George Wendt starred as the killer in one of the last episodes of the TV series Columbo, portraying a thoroughbred horse owner in the 1995 episode Strange Bedfellows.

14.

George Wendt played the role of Old Man Dunphy's closeted homosexual friend Joey in the 1999 film Outside Providence.

15.

In early 1997, George Wendt joined the cast of the NBC sitcom The Naked Truth as Les Polonsky, the new owner of the celebrity tabloid where the series' main characters worked.

16.

In 1998, George Wendt was one of the three characters in a London West End production of 'Art' with David Dukes and Stacy Keach.

17.

In 2003, George Wendt appeared as a celebrity fisherman in the music video for Cobra Verde's "Riot Industry" along with Rudy Ray Moore and The Minutemen's Mike Watt.

18.

George Wendt appeared in several episodes of The WB's Sabrina, The Teenage Witch in 2001 as the title character's boss.

19.

In January 2006, George Wendt was seen again on television screens as part of the cast of Modern Men.

20.

George Wendt has appeared on The Larry Sanders Show as a guest on the show.

21.

In 2006, George Wendt made several appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien where he performed short skits.

22.

George Wendt starred in a 2006 episode of Masters of Horror entitled "Family", directed by John Landis, and played Santa Claus in the ABC Family original film Santa Baby.

23.

George Wendt performed alongside Richard Thomas in Twelve Angry Men in October 2006 in the Eisenhower Theatre in Washington, DC.

24.

George Wendt appeared as an American GI in the 2007 Christmas Special episode of British sitcom The Green Green Grass.

25.

George Wendt starred in the Broadway musical Hairspray as the character of Edna Turnblad until November 2008.

26.

George Wendt appeared with his former Cheers co-star John Ratzenberger as a talent scout on Last Comic Standing during Season 6.

27.

George Wendt appeared in the 2008 horror film Bryan Loves You directed by Seth Landau.

28.

On October 1,2009, George Wendt appeared on The Colbert Report the day before the IOC announced which city will host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

29.

In 2009, George Wendt starred as Santa Claus in Santa Buddies and had a small role in the film Opposite Day.

30.

George Wendt appeared in a production of Hairspray, reprising his role as Edna Turnblad, from September 8 to October 9,2010, at the Charlottetown Festival in Prince Edward Island, Canada.

31.

George Wendt starred in a production of Hairspray as Edna Turnblad at Rainbow Stage in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, from August 2,2011, to August 21,2011.

32.

George Wendt guest-starred in the TV series Hot In Cleveland as Yoder, based on his character Norm in Cheers.

33.

George Wendt is among the thespians who participated in a poster campaign touting live theatre in Chicago.

34.

George Wendt has a cameo as a newspaper reporter on Portlandia on January 25,2013.

35.

George Wendt was set to play the role of Pap in the Hank Williams bio musical Lost Highway at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Auburn, New York.

36.

From November 6,2013, to January 19,2014, George Wendt starred in Never Too Late, a comedy with his wife, actress Bernadette Birkett, at New Theatre Restaurant in Overland Park, Kansas.

37.

In 2015, George Wendt starred opposite his former Second City co-star Tim Kazurinsky in Bruce Graham's new comedy Funnyman at Northlight Theatre.

38.

George Wendt appeared as Tracy Turnblad's mother in a production of Hairspray featuring John Waters and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in Baltimore in June 2016.

39.

George Wendt starred in The Fabulous Lipitones at New Theatre Restaurant in Overland Park, Kansas from November 30,2016, to February 12,2017.

40.

George Wendt starred as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman at St Jacob's Country Playhouse in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, from October 18 to November 4,2017.

41.

In 2023, George Wendt competed in season nine of The Masked Singer as "Moose" where he was mostly sitting during the performance.

42.

George Wendt was eliminated on "'80s Night" alongside Christine Quinn as "Scorpio".

43.

George Wendt is married to Bernadette Birkett, and has three children: Hilary, Joe, and Daniel.