Police Academy Star Peter Van Norden Dies at 75

Peter Van Norden, the character actor who brought screwball energy to some of the 1980s and 1990s’most beloved comedies, has passed away at 75. The New York City native died peacefully Thursday morning at a Southern California hospice facility, with his wife Wendy at his side, as he battled several health conditions.

Van Norden’s career stretched across four decades of steady, recognizable work—the kind of prolific grind that built real legacies, even if the name wasn’t always a marquee draw. He started in the late 1970s with a bit role in Squeeze Play and quickly became a reliable fixture in television’s golden age. Fans of 1980s and 1990s pop culture knew him from Cheers, T.J. Hooker, and the Stephen King miniseries The Stand. But for screwball comedy devotees, he’ll be remembered most clearly as Officer Vinnie Schtulman in Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment and for his turn as White House Chief of Staff John Sununu in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear—roles that leaned into absurdist humor with perfect comic timing.

What made Van Norden’s career distinctive was his refusal to be limited to the screen. He remained a serious stage actor throughout his life, taking roles on Broadway and in regional theaters across the country. His final credit came last year when he played Joe in a production of Corktown’39 at the Matrix Theater in Los Angeles—a dramatic piece about the IRA’s involvement in World War 2 that earned solid reviews from local critics. That willingness to move between comedy and drama, between Hollywood and the stage, speaks to someone who cared about the work itself, not just the profile it brought.

He leaves behind his wife Wendy and their son Robert.