George Wendt was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He attended a strict Jesuit prep school and then dropped out of Notre Dame University after a few uneventful years. He worked with the Windy City's famed Second City comedy troupe from 1974-1980. He is best known for playing Norm Peterson on the hit televison series, Cheers. He is married to actress Bernadette Birkett, who provided the rare offscreen voice of Norm's unseen wife Vera. The couple have two sons and a daughter. They met while working at the Second City in Chicago.
Played Macaulay Culkin's father in Michael Jackson's video 'Black or White'. Graduate of Rockhurst College (now known as Rockhurst University) in Kansas City, MO. Attended University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana for 2 years. Wendt's grandfather was Tom Howard, a photographer for the Chicago Tribune, who took one of the most famous news photos ever: The surreptitious 1927 picture showing murderess Ruth Snyder at the moment she was being executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing. The photo appeared on the front page of the New York Daily News. Has played Norm Peterson on six different shows: Cheers, St. Elsewhere, The Tortellis, The Simpsons, Wings, and Frasier. Along with John Ratzenberger, Richard Belzer and Paul Fusco, he is one of only four actors to play the same character (Hilary Norman 'Norm' Peterson) on six different shows: Cheers, Frasier, Wings, St. Elsewhere, The Tortellis and The Simpsons. He has appeared in episodes of all six series with John Ratzenberger. Along with Ted Danson and Rhea Perlman, he is one of only three actors to appear in all 273 episodes of Cheers. In a tribute George wrote for the Second City book, he said that when he joined Second City, it wasn't directly through the troupe as a performer. He had studied the shows for a while and befriended an employee whom he asked about joining. She told him to show up after a performance one day in the afternoon, which he subsequently did. The stage area was littered with cigarette butts, when the woman handed him a broom and said "Welcome to the theater, kid." Is an avid Notre Dame football fan. Always attends the notorious Notre Dame vs. USC game when held in Pasadena, California every two years.