George Wendt is best known to television audiences as Norm Peterson, the cud-sipping resident sports fan on "Cheers." The role earned Wendt six Emmy nominations. Wendt began his career with Second City, Chicago's famed improvisational company. In 1974, he was hired by the company as a professional satirist, and for six years he honed his skills as an actor and a comedy writer. A pilot featuring Second City players, "Nothing but Comedy," brought Wendt to Los Angeles. He then went on to guest star in such television series as "Alice," "Soap," "Taxi," "Hart to Hart," "M*A*S*H," and "St. Elsewhere." Wendt's feature film credits include "Forever Young," "Guilty By Suspicion," "Fletch," "Gun" Ho" and "Man of the House " Most recently he has just completed a remake of the classic "Bye Bye Birdie" for an ABC movie of the week.

Wendt appeared in the critically acclaimed stage production of David Mamet's "Lakeboat," which was directed by Joe Mantegna, and frequently performs onstage in New York, Los Angeles, and his native Chicago. In the summer of 1989, Wendt traveled to the USSR to portray the title role of "Oblomov," in a BBC adaptation of Ivan Goncharov's novel.

Wendt is married to Bernadette Birkett, who co-starred on the comedy series "It's Garry Shandling's Show." They currently live in Los Angeles with their four sons and one daughter.

Credit: anarchytv.com