George Robert Wendt III (born October 17, 1948) is an American actor, best known for the role of Norm Peterson on the television show Cheers.
Wendt was born in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, the son of Loretta M. (née Howard) and George Robert Wendt, a navy officer and realtor. His maternal grandfather was photographer Tom Howard. He is of German and Irish descent. He attended Campion High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. He was expelled from the University of Notre Dame after a semester with a 0.00 GPA and later attended the Jesuit Rockhurst College in Kansas City, where he graduated with a B.A. in economics.
Wendt is a 1975 alumnus of The Second City, which he discovered shortly after college. A viewing had inspired him to join and on his first day of employment, he showed up promptly at 11:30 am as he was instructed. The woman working there handed him a broom and said "Welcome to the theater, kid"; thus, his first job in show business was sweeping the floors. Second City was also where he met his future wife, Bernadette Birkett, who played Cliff's Halloween date in the third season of Cheers and later in the series played the voice of Norm's never-seen wife, Vera.