Bob Newhart, comedian and actor known for 'The Bob Newhart Show,' dies at 94
Newhart died after a series of short illnesses, his publicist said.
Bob Newhart, the comedian and actor known for "The Bob Newhart Show," has died, his publicist said. He was 94.
Newhart died after a series of short illnesses, his longtime publicist Jerry Digney said in a statement on Thursday.
Best known for his observational humor and deadpan delivery, the Chicago native began his career as an accountant, before he tried his hand at comedy. He became a household name with the release of his 1960 comedy album, "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart." It won Newhart two Grammys: Album of the Year and Best New Artist. No other comedian has achieved the latter since.
"The album just -- it went crazy. I went from a man on the street program in Chicago to a year and a half later, to calls from Ed Sullivan," he marveled in a 2008 interview with the Archive of American Television. "It was just weird. There was a period of adjustment."
After the success of "The Button-Down Mind," Newhart earned his own variety show with NBC, "The Bob Newhart Show." Though it was canceled after one season, the comedian earned an Emmy nomination and a Peabody Award for his work on the show.
He went on to guest star on shows including "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" and "The Ed Sullivan Show" over the next few years, and in 1972, he took on the starring role in a sitcom also named "The Bob Newhart Show." In that series, Newhart played a psychologist named Robert Hartley, who was constantly interacting with patients and colleagues.
"The Bob Newhart Show" lasted six seasons, and in 1982, he took on a new sitcom, "Newhart," in which he portrayed an innkeeper named Dick Loudon. "Newhart" earned the actor three Emmy nominations, and its finale has been lauded as one of the greatest in television history. Newhart credited his wife, Ginnie, for coming up with the idea for the episode, in which Newhart's character is discovered to be a figment of Hartley's dream.
"We were apprehensive. We didn't know how it would be received," he said in the 2008 interview. "But then when we got the audience's reaction, we said, 'That's it. That's it.'"
Newhart went on have two other shows, "Bob" and "George and Leo," though neither had the success of his previous sitcoms.
The veteran comic appeared in several hit films, including "Legally Blonde 2," "Elf" and "Horrible Bosses." In 2013, the actor won his first Emmy, for a guest-starring role in "The Big Bang Theory."
The actor was also an accomplished voice-over artist who lent his talent to films such as Disney's "The Rescuers" and "The Rescuers Down Under."
Newhart is survived by four children, Jennifer, Courtney, Timothy and Robert, and numerous grandchildren. His wife of 60 years, Virginia "Ginnie" Newhart, passed away in 2023.