Jason Sudeikis Breaks Silence on Uncle George Wendt's Death
Jason Sudeikis is famous for being funny. But he took a few moments to show off his more serious side this weekend as he spoke about his late uncle, Cheers star George Wendt, who passed away on May 20.
Sudeikis was in Kansas City over the weekend to help kick off the 2025 Big Slick, an annual fundraising event that brings together some of Hollywood’s most popular actors and comedians to benefit Children's Mercy Hospital, which is consistently ranked among the country’s best children’s hospitals.
Related: 34 Years Ago, George Wendt Starred in the Biggest Music Video of All Time
During a press conference, Sudeikis spoke about his late uncle, noting: “With regard to my uncle George, there’s that saying, ‘Don’t meet your heroes,’ usually cause they let you down. I assume is the back half of that statement. But he’s not one of those people. He’s as fun and kind and as warm as any character he played on television or in films,” said the Ted Lasso star.
“He was an incredible influence to me, both as someone that blazed the trail being from the Midwest and teaching me that acting was a career you could actually have, and it’s also a career where you could meet the love of your life like his wife, and a.k.a. permanent girlfriend, Bernadette.”
For more than a decade, Wendt played Norm Peterson, a fan-favorite character on the classic sitcom Cheers, and received six Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his efforts. But, as Sudeikis explained, Wendt never forgot his roots.
Wendt, according to his nephew, “always kept connected to his family and to his roots both in Chicago, where he’s from, and from the time he spent here [in Kansas City] going to Rockhurst [University]—and to a bar named Mike’s a whole bunch, where I think he logged maybe 18 credit hours.”
“But it was all for preparation of a job that we all know him for on Cheers,” Sudeikis joked, “and all time well spent. But yeah, we miss him greatly and I love him dearly.”
Long before Sudeikis became a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live, Wendt had hosted the show (twice) and was a regular guest as an originating member of the “Chicago Superfans” (a.k.a. Da Bears) sketch.
At last year’s Big Slick, Wendt reunited with his “Superfans” co-star Robert Smigel—plus Sudeikis and Kansas City legend Travis Kelce—to revive their characters.