Jason Sudeikis' uncle earned Emmy nominations six years running after getting started on Second City in his hometown of Chicago.

But the more viewers got to know the character — played, of course, by George Wendt, who died yesterday at 76 in his sleep of unknown causes, according to his family — the more complex, and in some ways tragic,

George Wendt, an actor with an Everyman charm who played the affable, beer-loving barfly Norm on the hit 1980s TV comedy “Cheers,” has died. He was 76.