You know your place in pop culture is secure when fans everywhere remember you by just one name. And for actor George Wendt, whose place was at the end of a Boston bar from 1982 to 1993, that name was, of course, “Norm!” Wendt, who earned six consecutive Emmy nominations for playing accountant/tavern habitué Norm Peterson on the hit ’80s sitcom Cheers, passed away this week at 76.

A Chicago native and one of nine siblings, Wendt was born in the South Side’s Beverly community in 1948. He attended Notre Dame but ultimately graduated with an economics degree from Rockhurst College in 1971. Any dreams of going into accounting like Norm changed when he set out to learn comedy at Chicago’s famed Second City, although his first job there was cleaning the floors. After honing his craft there…and meeting his future wife, actress Bernadette Birkett, George made his uncredited movie debut in Robert Altman’s 1978 comedy A Wedding. Roles in other films (Bronco Billy, Somewhere in Time, Airplane II: The Sequel, and more) and such TV shows as Taxi, Alice, and M*A*S*H followed before Taxi producers Glen and Les Charles and James Burrows offered him the role of Norm on their new NBC series.

Over the next 11 years Wendt was one of three cast members (along with Ted Danson and Rhea Perlman) to appear in every episode of Cheers. Usually entering the bar to the thunderous greeting “Norm!,” he was always ready with a quip that demonstrated either his world-weary attitude or his fondness for a cold, frosty one. An an early episode, when bartender Coach (Nicholas Colasanto) asked him, “How does a beer sound, Norm?,” Norm replied, “I don’t know Coach, I usually finish them before they get a word in.” He was generally found at the far of the bar sitting next to his drinking buddy, know-it-all mailman Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger). His other habit was avoiding phone calls from his wife Vera (whose face was never shown but whose voice was supplied by Birkett, the real Mrs. Wendt).

During his Cheers tenure Wendt popped up in other TV shows, from The Twilight Zone to Seinfeld, and hosted Saturday Night Live twice, often returning as one of the Chicago “superfans.” He also appeared in such diverse films as Dreamscape, Fletch, House, Gung Ho with Michael Keaton, and Forever Young opposite Mel Gibson. After the show concluded in 1993 the actor had his own short-lived comedy series in 1995, The George Wendt Show, starring him and Pat Finn as brothers who have a car repair-themed call-in radio program. That same year he played Harry MacAffee in a made-for-TV production of Bye Bye Birdie and later had recurring roles on The Naked Truth and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. His feature film roles included cameos in 1994’s The Little Rascals and 1997’s Spice World.

Along with occasional movie and TV work in the 2000s Wendt began appearing more on the live stage. He co-starred with Richard Thomas in a 2006 production of the courthouse drama 12 Angry Men. Two years later he donned drag to play Baltimore hausfrau Edna Turnblad on Broadway in Hairspray and portrayed Santa Claus in 2010’s Elf: The Musical. He would even take on the role of Willy Loman in a 2017 Canadian staging of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. His last TV series were the one-season cable comedy Clipped in 2015 and the Disney Junior animated series Fancy Nancy in 2018. Wendt’s final movie role came in the 2022 Yuletide romcom Christmas with the Campbells. In a strange coincidence, George’s May 20, 2025 death at his Los Angeles home came 32 years to the day that Cheers aired its final episode.

From gun-toting gangster/lovers (Bonnie and Clyde) to a divorced couple’s child custody battle (Kramer vs. Kramer), Oscar-winning filmmaker Robert Benton’s body of work covered a wide range of genres and subjects. Benton–who died earlier this month at 92–was adept at writing screwball comedy, superheroic action, and heartfelt drama, and his efforts in the director’s chair were equally eclectic.

Born in Dallas in 1932, Benton graduated from the University of Texas with a fine arts degree in 1953. He entered Columbia University to pursue an art history master’s degree but was drafted into the Army. Once his two-year hitch was up he returned to New York and was hired as an art department assistant at Esquire Magazine. His tenure there introduced him to fellow writer and future collaborator David Newman. For Esquire the duo would help launch the infamous Dubious Achievement Awards, and they would bring comics’ mightiest hero to the Broadway stage in the less-than-high-flying 1966 musical comedy It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman (a sign of things to come).

Benton and Newman had much more success with their next effort, the screenplay for director Arthur Penn’s 1967 crime saga Bonnie and Clyde, which earned them Academy Award nominations. The duo next wrote for the 1970 western There Was a Crooked Man with Kirk Douglas and Henry Fonda, and for Peter Bogdanovich’s screwball gem What’s Up, Doc?, starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal, in 1972. That same year Benton stepped behind the camera for the first time, directing Jeff Bridges in the frontier drama Bad Company, which he again co-authored with Newman.

1977 found Benton taking sole writing and directing duties for the acclaimed comedy/mystery The Late Show, starring Art Carney as an aging private eye and Lily Tomlin as his quirky client. He and Newman reteamed for another crack at the Man of Steel when they were hired to “punch up” Mario Puzo’s screenplay for 1978’s Superman with Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman. Ironically, their initial effort was deemed too “campy” and writer Tom Mankiewicz was brought in for (uncredited) rewrite work. It was back to solo work for Robert with his next project, adapting Avery Corman’s novel “Kramer Versus Kramer” for the big screen. After going through several casting choices with producer Stanley R. Jaffe, Dustin Hoffman (who had been going through his own divorce drama) and Meryl Streep were signed to play the feuding title characters. Kramer vs. Kramer would go on to win five Oscars, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Benton.

Benton and Streep reunited on the steamy 1982 suspenser Still of the Night, co-starring Roy Scheider. Robert returned to his Texas roots for his next film, 1984’s Places in the Heart, the story of a young widow (Sally Field) trying to raise her children and hold onto her family’s farm during the heights of the Great Depression. The heartfelt drama, which also featured Danny Glover and John Malkovich, earned Field her second Best Actress Academy Award (“You like me!”) and Benton a Best Original Screenplay statue. The filmmaker had less success with his also-set-in-Texas follow-up, the 1987 caper comedy Nadine, starring Kim Basinger in the title role and Bad Company’s Bridges.

Robert helmed the 1991 screen version of E.L. Doctorow’s gangster novel Billy Bathgate, with Hoffman and Loren Dean. He then directed Paul Newman in a pair of the actor’s final live-action films, the 1994 comedy/drama Nobody’s Fool and 1998’s thriller Twilight (both pictures featured screenplays written or co-written by Benton).  His final screenwriting credit was a collaboration with Nobody’s Fool novelist Richard Russo on the 2005 “comedy noir” The Ice Harvest, and his last directorial efforts were the 2003 drama The Human Stain and 2007’s Feast of Love. The three-time Academy Award winner passed away at his Manhattan home on May 11.