Wendt received his showbiz begin within the Second Metropolis improvisational comedy troupe of his native Chicago within the Seventies and went on to look in small roles in varied prime-time TV collection through the Eighties, together with M*A*S*H, Taxi, and Cleaning soap.
He landed his first gig as a TV collection common in 1982 on the short-lived CBS comedy Making The Grade, which lasted simply six episodes earlier than it was cancelled.
However he was most well-known for his signature function because the beer-quaffing accountant Norm Peterson – as amiable as he was portly – throughout all the run of Cheers, which aired in US prime time from 1982 to 1993.
Set in a fictional Boston neighbourhood bar “the place everyone is aware of your title”, the collection launched the careers of such stars as Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson, and spun off one other long-running NBC sitcom, Frasier, starring Kelsey Grammer.
Norm was typically the good-natured comedian foil of his bar-stool companion and ingesting buddy, the know-it-all mailman Cliff, performed by John Ratzenberger. The Norm character earned Wendt six consecutive Emmy Award nominations.
Simply months earlier than the present ended its run, Wendt and Ratzenberger sued the present’s producer, Paramount Footage, difficult a licensing deal that sought to market their likenesses as a pair of chatty life-size robots in a sequence of Cheers-like airport bars.
The case, pitting mental property rights claimed by the studio in opposition to the actors’ rights to unique management over use of their very own likenesses for revenue, bounced by the federal courtroom system for years earlier than being denied a listening to by the US Supreme Court docket in 2000. The case in the end was settled for undisclosed phrases.
The recognition of the Norm character helped gas Wendt’s profession for many years to return, as he appeared in dozens of supporting roles or visitor spots in movie and TV exhibits, largely comedies, generally as himself or reprising his Norm character.
Among the many most memorable of his off-Cheers physique of labor had been eight appearances as a Chicago sports activities superfan in a recurring sketch on Saturday Evening Reside, using a spot-on South Aspect accent to humorous impact.
