section_path: Personal life and death
section_name: Personal life and death
paragraph_text: Personal life and death
  
  In 1974, Wendt met actress Bernadette Birkett at the Second City theater in Chicago. They married in 1978 and Birkett later voiced his off-screen wife, Vera, in Cheers. The couple had three children: Hilary, Joe, and Daniel.
  
  Wendt died in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles, on May 20, 2025, at the age of 76, from cardiac arrest. Contributing conditions including congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, and hypertension (high blood pressure). He also had end-stage renal disease and hyperlipidemia (high blood cholesterol).
  
  Several of his Cheers co-stars offered remembrances of him including Ted Danson, Kelsey Grammer, Rhea Perlman, and John Ratzenberger. Others who paid tribute to him included Melissa Joan Hart, Eric Allan Kramer, Bill Simmons, Joe Mantegna, Robert Smigel and his nephew Jason Sudeikis. The real life Cheers Beacon Hill bar honored Wendt by setting up a memorial in the area of the bar where his character sat.
  
  In 1974, Wendt met actress Bernadette Birkett at the Second City theater in Chicago. They married in 1978 and Birkett later voiced his off-screen wife, Vera, in Cheers. The couple had three children: Hilary, Joe, and Daniel.
  
  Wendt died in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles, on May 20, 2025, at the age of 76, from cardiac arrest. Contributing conditions including congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, and hypertension (high blood pressure). He also had end-stage renal disease and hyperlipidemia (high blood cholesterol).
  
  Several of his Cheers co-stars offered remembrances of him including Ted Danson, Kelsey Grammer, Rhea Perlman, and John Ratzenberger. Others who paid tribute to him included Melissa Joan Hart, Eric Allan Kramer, Bill Simmons, Joe Mantegna, Robert Smigel and his nephew Jason Sudeikis. The real life Cheers Beacon Hill bar honored Wendt by setting up a memorial in the area of the bar where his character sat.