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Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Science
- Los Angeles Times
John Brenkus, risk-taking host of ‘Sport Science,' dies after battle with depression
John Brenkus, the charismatic TV host who found creative ways to get sports fans to think about science, has died, his production company, said Sunday in a statement. 'John, co-founder of Base Productions, founder of and co-creator and host of the 6-time Emmy Award-winning 'Sport Science,' had been battling depression,' the statement read. 'John lost his fight with this terrible illness on May 31st, 2025.' The statement added that Brenkus' 'heartbroken family and friends request privacy at this time, and encourage anyone who is struggling with depression to seek help.' Brenkus grew up in Vienna, Va., and was a participant in multiple Ironman Triathlon races. Also a successful businessman and media producer, Brenkus was best known as the host of 'Sport Science.' The show aired from 2007-2017, first on Fox Sports as hour-long episodes for two seasons, then on ESPN in segment form within the network's other programs. It featured scientific experiments that tested common notions about athletes, their abilities and the capacity of the human body. In addition to the participation of numerous sports stars, Brenkus would often take part in the experiments, putting himself 'in harm's way for the sake of scientific discovery,' as ESPN once put it. 'Standing a very average 5' 8' tall, and tipping the scales at an equally average 160 pounds, Brenkus intersperses his hosting and executive producing duties on Sport Science with performances as the show's 'Everyman,' to help demonstrate what happens when a regular guy steps on the field, into the ring, or on the court with top athletes at the top of their games,' a 2009 ESPN press release stated. 'Along the way, he helps audiences understand their own physiologies and how to improve their overall performance, health and well-being.' ESPN's Randy Scott remembered his former colleague, who was reportedly 53 when he died, Monday morning on 'SportsCenter.' 'John was uniquely talented and singularly brilliant at not only analyzing sports but then translating sports and science to generations of fans in memorable ways, because John was memorable,' Scott said. '… This world was a better place with John Brenkus in it.'
Time of India
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Billy Joel diagnosed with brain disorder, cancels gigs
Billy Joel , the arena-filling Everyman singer-songwriter, has cancelled all of his upcoming concerts, including a large-scale tour scheduled for this year and next, because of a brain disorder known as normal pressure hydrocephalus, he announced in a statement on Friday. "This condition has been exacerbated by recent concert performances, leading to problems with hearing, vision and balance," said the statement, which was posted to the singer's social media accounts. "Under his doctor's instructions, Billy is undergoing specific physical therapy and has been advised to refrain from performing during this recovery period." Normal pressure hydrocephalus, or N.P.H., consists of a buildup of spinal fluid in the brain, which causes pressure on nerves that control various parts of the body. A mainstream music mainstay since the early 1970s, Joel is best known for songs like "Piano Man," "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," "She's Always a Woman" and "Big Shot" - just a sampling of the crowd-pleasing singalongs in his catalog, which included 43 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Although last year he released his first new pop song in nearly two decades, "Turn the Lights Back On," Joel has been better known as a mainstay of the live music landscape. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 이미지 영어에 대해서 40분만에 알려드립니다 스티븐영어 지금 시작하기 Undo He completed a decade-long residency - more than 100 shows - at Madison Square Garden in July, with overall attendance nearing two million people and a gross of more than $260 million. "The demand never stopped," Joel's agent, Dennis Arfa, told NYT last year, explaining how the end of the residency only meant bigger things for Joel in the twilight of his career. "What's really happened in the last 10 years is Billy has evolved into a stadium artist," Arfa added. "It's a different euphoria when you're older." Joel's scheduled dates, with appearances by Rod Stewart, Sting and Stevie Nicks, included football and baseball stadiums in US, Canada and Britain. Refunds for customers would be automatic, his statement said. In March, Joel postponed eight upcoming concerts, citing a medical condition.
Irish Examiner
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Five For Your Radar: Hank Wedel, Wes Anderson, Listowel Writers...
Cinema: The Phoenician Scheme General release, Friday, May 23 We'll always make time for Wes Anderson though even his most ardent fans might agree his films have been too whimsical of late at expense of plot. His latest comes two years after Asteroid City and features an all-star cast headed by Benicio Del Toro and Mia Threapleton, a breakout star/nepo baby — she's Kate Winslet's daughter. The bio: The story of a family and a family business. Comedy: DirtBirds: Girls World Tour Everyman, Cork, Friday, May 23 Sinead Culbert and Sue Collins are the Dirtbirds — 'real women, real issues, real funny'. After their last sell-out tour of Ireland and the UK, Girls World Tour mixes standup and sketches as they explore the female mind and ask: Why do we enter 1,000 calories into our Noom app when we've really consumed over 6,000? Why do we hold onto tights when they've ladders in them? Why do we keep buying creams that we know won't stop our faces from sliding down our necks? Dance: Chora Cork Opera House, Wednesday, May 28 National dance company Luail brings its inaugural performance, Chora, to Cork Opera House. New national dance company Luail presents its inaugural work, a triple bill of new dance works by choreographers Maria Campos and Guy Nader, Liz Roche, and Mufutau Yusuf, in collaboration with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. With set and costume design by Katie Davenport and lighting design by Sinéad McKenna, and featuring Cork composer Sam Perkin, Chora sees the dancers and musicians draw on their bodies, instruments, and ultimately, each other. Literary: Listowel Writers Week Various venues, From Thursday, May 29 Ireland's oldest literary and arts festival — it began in 1971 — returns over the June bank holiday weekend. Kicking off on Thursday, a literary and historical walking tour of the Kerry town takes place at 10am, playwright Jimmy Murphy hosts the John B Keane Memorial Lecture, while there are also events focused on poetry, short stories, history, and Athea Drama Group puts on the lyrical folk play Sharon's Grave. And that's just the first day of Writers Week! Music: Hank Wedel Speak To Me (with Princes Street and Carol Barrett Ford), Wednesday, May 28 A singer-songwriter born in the US and based in Cork city, Hank Wedel was 25 in 1988, when he returned after two years performing in New York. He formed Princes Street who released the mini-album The Night John Lynch Lost His Glasses in 1989. That long player featured the classic tune Speak to Me, a song which became a favourite at the band's numerous live shows during the era. Now the track is finally getting a digital release - it will be available on all streamers from Wednesday.
The Hindu
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
George Wendt, who played beloved barfly Norm on 'Cheers' and found another home onstage, dies at 76
George Wendt, an actor with an Everyman charm who played the affable, beer-loving barfly Norm on the hit 1980s TV comedy 'Cheers' and later crafted a stage career that took him to Broadway in 'Art,' 'Hairspray' and 'Elf,' has died. He was 76. Wendt's family said he died early Tuesday (May 20, 2025) morning, peacefully in his sleep while at home, according to the publicity firm The Agency Group. 'George was a doting family man, a well-loved friend and confidant to all of those lucky enough to have known him,' the family said in a statement. 'He will be missed forever.' The family has requested privacy during this time. Despite a long career of roles onstage and on TV, it was as gentle and henpecked Norm Peterson on 'Cheers' that he was most associated, earning six straight Emmy Award nominations for best supporting actor in a comedy series from 1984-89. The series was centered on lovable losers in a Boston bar and starred Ted Danson, Shelley Long, Rhea Perlman, Kelsey Grammer, John Ratzenberger, Kirstie Alley and Woody Harrelson. It would spin off another megahit in 'Frasier' and was nominated for an astounding 117 Emmy Awards, winning 28 of them. Wendt, who spent six years in Chicago's renowned Second City improv troupe before sitting on a barstool at the place where everybody knows your name, didn't have high hopes when he auditioned for 'Cheers.' 'My agent said, 'It's a small role, honey. It's one line. Actually, it's one word.' The word was 'beer.' I was having a hard time believing I was right for the role of 'the guy who looked like he wanted a beer.' So I went in, and they said, 'It's too small a role. Why don't you read this other one?' And it was a guy who never left the bar,' Wendt told GQ in an oral history of 'Cheers.' 'Cheers' premiered on Sept. 30, 1982, and spent the first season with low ratings. NBC president Brandon Tartikoff championed the show, and it was nominated for an Emmy for best comedy series in its first season. Some 80 million people would tune in to watch its series finale 11 years later. Wendt became a fan favorite in and outside the bar — his entrances were cheered with a warm 'Norm!' — and his wisecracks always landed. 'How's a beer sound, Norm?' he would be asked by the bartender. 'I dunno. I usually finish them before they get a word in,' he'd respond. While the beer the cast drank on set was nonalcoholic, Wendt and other 'Cheers' cast members have admitted they were tipsy on May 20, 1993, when they watched the show's final episode then appeared together on 'The Tonight Show' in a live broadcast from the Bull and Finch Pub in Boston, the bar that inspired the series. ″We had been drinking heavily for two hours but nobody thought to feed us,' Wendt told the Beaver County Times of Pennsylvania in 2009. 'We were nowhere near as cute as we thought we were.' Perlman, who regularly served Wendt on 'Cheers,' in a statement called him 'the sweetest, kindest man I ever met. It was impossible not to like him. "As Carla, I was often standing next to him, as Norm always took the same seat at the end of the bar, which made it easy to grab him and beat the crap out of him at least once a week. I loved doing it and he loved pretending it didn't hurt. What a guy! I'll miss him more than words can say.' After 'Cheers,' Wendt starred in his own short-lived sitcom 'The George Wendt Show' — 'too bad he had to step out of Norm and down so far from that corner stool for his debut stanza,' sniffed Variety — and had guest spots on TV shows like 'The Ghost Whisperer,' 'Harry's Law' and 'Portlandia.' He was part of a brotherhood of Chicago Everymen who gathered over sausage and beers and adored 'Da Bears' on 'Saturday Night Live.' In 2023, he competed on 'The Masked Singer.' But he found steady work onstage: Wendt slipped on Edna Turnblad's housecoat in Broadway's 'Hairspray' beginning in 2007, and was in the Tony Award-winning play 'Art' in New York and London. He starred in the national tour of '12 Angry Men' and appeared in a production of David Mamet's 'Lakeboat.' He also starred in regional productions of 'Death of a Salesman,' 'The Odd Couple,' 'Never Too Late' and 'Funnyman.' 'A, it's by far the most fun, but B, I seem to have been kicked out of television,' Wendt told the Kansas City Star in 2011. 'I overstayed my welcome. But theater suits me.' Wendt had an affinity for playing Santa Claus, donning the famous red outfit in the stage musical 'Elf' on Broadway in 2017, the TV movie 'Santa Baby' with Jenny McCarthy in 2006 and in the doggie Disney video 'Santa Buddies' in 2009. He also played Father Christmas for TV specials by Larry the Cable Guy and Stephen Colbert. 'I think it just proves that if you stay fat enough and get old enough, the offers start rolling in,' the actor joked to the AP in his Broadway dressing room. Born in Chicago, Wendt attended Campion High School, a Catholic boarding school in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and then Notre Dame, where he rarely went to class and was kicked out. He transferred to Rockhurst University in Kansas City and graduated, after majoring in economics. He found a home at Second City in both the touring company and the mainstage. 'I think comedy is my long suit, for sure. My approach to comedy is usually not full-bore clownish,' he told the AP. 'If you're trying to showboat or step outside, it doesn't always work. There are certain performers who almost specialize in doing that, and they do it really well. But that's not my approach.' He had a lifelong association with beer. He had his first taste as an 8-year-old and got drunk at 16, at the World's Fair in New York. His beer knowledge was poured into the book ″Drinking With George: A Barstool Professional's Guide to Beer,' co-written with Jonathan Grotenstein. One line: 'Will Rogers once said he never met a man he didn't like. I feel the same about beer.' Part autobiography, part beer drinker's guide, the book had Wendt's conversational tone and lists, such as 'Five Good Bar Bets,' ″77 Toasts from Around the World' and '(More Than) 100 Ways to Say That You're Drunk,' which alphabetically lists 126 synonyms from 'annihilated' through 'zozzled.' He is survived by his wife, Second City alum Bernadette Birkett, who voiced Norm's never-seen not-so better half, Vera, on 'Cheers'; his children, Hilary, Joe and Daniel; and his stepchildren, Joshua and Andrew. 'From his early days with The Second City to his iconic role as Norm on 'Cheers,' George Wendt's work showcased how comedy can create indelible characters that feel like family. Over the course of 11 seasons, he brought warmth and humor to one of television's most beloved roles,' National Comedy Center Executive Director Journey Gunderson said in a statement.
Toronto Star
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
George Wendt, who played beloved barfly Norm on ‘Cheers' and found another home onstage, dies at 76
NEW YORK (AP) — George Wendt, an actor with an Everyman charm who played the affable, beer-loving barfly Norm on the hit 1980s TV comedy 'Cheers' and later crafted a stage career that took him to Broadway in 'Art,' 'Hairspray' and 'Elf,' has died. He was 76. Wendt's family said he died early Tuesday morning, peacefully in his sleep while at home, according to the publicity firm The Agency Group.
