George Wendt, ‘Cheers’ star and Jason Sudeikis’ uncle, had strong ties to KC
George Wendt — the beloved “Cheers” actor known to TV audiences as “Norm!” — had strong ties to Kansas City, where he was known as a brother, uncle, friend and popular dinner-theater actor.
Wendt died peacefully in his sleep at home, his family said early Tuesday morning. He was 76.
“George was a doting family man, a well-loved friend and confidant to all of those lucky enough to have known him,” a family rep said in a statement. “He will be missed forever. The family has requested privacy during this time.”
His surviving family includes his sister, long-time Kansas City travel agent Kathy Sudeikis, the mother of “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis. Kathy is one of the organizers of the Big Slick Celebrity Weekend that Sudeikis and his fellow KC celebrities co-host. This year’s event is next week.
Wendt appeared several times at Big Slick — just last year in a skit reprising his role as “Da Bears” superfan Bob Swerski, a character he played on “Saturday Night Live.”
Wendt was also a frequent guest star in productions at the New Theatre & Restaurant in Overland Park, where diehard fans never missed his performances.
In 2016, the world’s most lovable barfly took The Star on a tour of several local bars he frequented while at Rockhurst University, where he enrolled in the early 1970s after the Chicago native was expelled from Notre Dame.
He was in town rehearsing for “The Fabulous Lipitones” at the New Theatre at the time. Along the way he talked about his life in Kansas City as a Rockhurst student.
“Kansas City was Sodom and Gomorrah compared to South Bend,” he said. “There was a bar right across the street, which I thought was fantastic.”
He visited that bar, Mike’s Tavern (now closed), and Kelly’s Westport Inn that day.
“I remember the pay phone at Mike’s,” he said. “You could rig it. I worked for AT&T back in the day, and we could see the kids were rigging it. They were getting free phone calls.”
Getting kicked out of Notre Dame, his father’s alma mater, brought Wendt to Kansas City.
“I flunked out,” he said. “I basically quit and didn’t inform the university. I’d moved off campus my junior year, and I didn’t think it through. I didn’t have a car. It was cold. I never went to class.”
He went home to Chicago to live with his parents, but they weren’t happy
“I was at home for a semester, getting seriously badgered,” he said. “So I’m thinking, ‘I’ve got to get out of here. Where can I go?’ I think it was my mom who reminded me that Father Carey was at Rockhurst College.”
His parents knew the Rev. Frank Carey, a Kansas City native, from the Jesuit boarding school in Wisconsin that Wendt had attended. The priest put in a good word for him at Rockhurst, where Wendt studied economics and learned that, well, class attendance was mandatory.
Hanging out in Europe after graduating from Rockhurst pointed him in the direction that would make him famous: comedic acting.
He got his start in the 1970s with the famous improvisational comedy troupe, Second City, in Chicago. He spent six years with the troupe and met his wife, Bernadette Birkett, who survives him.
He played beer-loving accountant Norm in every episode of “Cheers” from 1982 to 1993. Birkett provided the off-screen voice of Norm’s never-seen wife, Vera.
Wendt explained how his sister came to call Kansas City home and the family ties that kept him coming back here.
“(Her husband) Dan joined the Navy and got an office gig at the Pentagon,” he said. “So they moved to (Washington) D.C. That’s where Jason was born. … Then Dan got an offer from IBM to come to Kansas City after the Navy. They never looked back.”
Wendt often spoke fondly of the career his nephew and godson Jason built for himself, and the person he grew up to be. Like his uncle, Jason also performed with Second City.
“He’s such a great kid,” Wendt said last year on an episode of the “Still Here Hollywood” podcast.
“Very proud. Proud especially, you know, not only of the success, but he’s solid. Have you read profiles and stuff? I mean he is ... so smart, so thoughtful.”
When Wendt visited Kelly’s in Westport with The Star, people recognized him immediately.
Folks visited his table, asked for selfies, offered to buy him a beer.
He shard a story about shooting a film in Dublin, when a friend invited him to go barhopping. Wendt hesitated, wanting to avoid any attention. The friend insisted he knew of a place where no one would know his name, and the place, called Ferryman, was nearly empty when they got there.
Except for this one guy named Bono.
“‘I didn’t want to meet you because you were Norm on ‘Cheers,’” the lead singer of U2 told him. “I wanted to meet you because you were Norm on ‘Cheers’ and you found this place ... you cracked the code.’”
Wendt stopped to take a few last photos with fans before he left Kelly’s that day in 2016.
And as he walked out the door, two voices rang out.
“Norm!”
This story was originally published May 20, 2025 at 5:19 PM.
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