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Caloroga Shark Media. I’m Johnny Mack. George Went, best known for his role as Norm Peterson on NBC’s Cheers, passed away Tuesday morning at his home. He was seventy six. His publicist, Melissa Nathan, shared a statement, George was a doting family man, a well loved friend, and a confidence who all those lucky enough to have known him.
He will be missed forever. The family has requested privacy during this time. When earned six consecutive Emmy nominations for his performance as Norm Peterson, Cheers coincidentally ended thirty two years ago today. George was part of the Second City in the nineteen seventies before becoming a TV actor. He had numerous guest spots and then landed the role of barfly Norm Peterson.
He would later appear as Norm in The Tortellis, which was one of the spinoffs from Cheers and Frasier. After appearing in all two hundred seventy three episodes of Cheers, George went went to CBS to star in The George Wentz Show. He played a radio host car mechanic. That series only ran four a month. Born in nineteen forty eight in Chicago.
George was on SNL as one of the Chicago Bears superfans. One of nine children, attended the University of Notre Dame before switching to Rockhurst College and graduating with a degree in economics. He married Bernardette Burkett in nineteen seventy eight. Bernetette interestingly voiced the character of Norm’s wife on Cheers. She was never seen on camera so many credits, including Fletch Gung Ho, Spice World, the nineteen eighty five horror film House indie film from twenty nineteen, The Climb, guest appearances on Hot and Cleveland, The Twilight Zone, Colombo George Lopez Fresh off the Boat.
In twenty twenty three, he appeared on the Masked Singer in Rolling Stone. Alan Seppenwall writes, the final scene of Cheers is a masterclass on how to end a beloved, long running show properly. It’s just Sam alone and the rest of the gang hanging out, smoking cigars, swapping stories, and reminding the audience why this fictional Boston sports bar had become such a cherished place to virtually hang out for the last decade. They trade jokes and other different suggestions for what the meaning of life is. Then the bar’s phone rings that everybody realizes they have somewhere else they should be.
Everyone files out, except for Norm Peterson played by George Went, who says that the meeting of life is love. Yes, Sam, you know what I love? Sam replies beer Norm. Norm considers that promote and then says, yeah, I’ll have a quick one. It’s one more perfectly timed for re joinder from the character and actor who may have been better at it than anyone else in the long and storied history of TV comedy.
His surviving family includes his sister Kathy Sidecas, mother of Jason Sidekas. Yeah, I didn’t know this, George Went was Jason Sadakas’. His uncle. Sister Kathy is one of the organizers of the Big Slick Celebrity weekend that Jason and his fellow Kansas City celebrity’s co host. This year’s event is next week.
He heard several times that Big Slick. Last year reprised his role as one of the de Bears super fans alongside Jason Sadegas, Robert Smigel, and Patrick Mahomes from the Chiefs. George told a story about his life in Kansas City as a student at Rockhurst. He said, Kansas City was sodom and gomore compared to South Bend Notre Dame. There was a bar right across the street, and I thought it was fantastic.
I remember the payphone at Mike’s tavern. You could rig it. I worked for AT and T back in the day, and we could see the kids were rigging it. They were getting free phone calls. He shared a story about shooting a film in Dublin.
A friend invited him to go bar hopping. George didn’t want to go. George gave in. They went to a place called the ferry Man, who was mostly empty except for one guy. That guy, Bono, was this amazing.
Bono told George, I didn’t want to meet you because you were Norm on Cheers. I wanted to meet you because you were Norman Cheers and you found this place. You corracked the code. George went once said, the Norm you see in Cheers has been years in the making. I have some characteristics in common with him, besides our fondness for beer.
But I think I’m a lot happier than Norm. I was a beer drinker long before Cheers. When I put a couple of six packs on top of my grocery shopping cart. People are pleased, I tell him I’m taking them home to rehearse. He did say that the toughest part of his job was drinking the beer on the TV, which was actually warm, flat, and non alcoholic that was layered with a pinch of salt to create the illusion of a head on a beer.
He told The Washington Post in nineteen eighty five. There I was slamming those down for a whole day. It not only tastes disgusting. I was afraid of keeling over from high blood pressure. Then I got the knack.
I didn’t have to put all those brus away. It only mattered when the camera was pointing my way. It took a couple of years, but now I watch the camera. That’s how I make my money. That’s acting.
George Went was seventy six