TV legend and comedian Bob Newhart has died following a series of short illnesses, his publicist Jerry Digney announced. He was 94.
Newhart, best known for the characters he played on his popular CBS TV shows “The Bob Newhart Show” in the 70s and later “Newhart” in the 80s, passed away on Thursday at his Los Angeles home, Digney shared, People magazine reported.
The award winning comedian — known for his satirical and deadpan humor — found huge success first in stand-up and later on the big and small screens.
More recently, younger audiences got to know him in “Elf,” the popular 2003 Christmas movie across from Will Ferrell in which he played the lovable role of Papa Elf.
Bob Newhart, Dean of the Deadpan Delivery, Dies at 94 https://t.co/xQDW445ysj
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) July 18, 2024
Newhart spent more than six decades in Hollywood making audiences laugh after deciding that a career as an accountant was not where he wanted to be.
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“In 1959, I gave myself a year to make it in comedy; it was back to accounting if comedy didn’t work out,” he once said, per his obituary shared by Digney.
He recorded a comedy album in 1959 called “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” and it was a hit. It shot to the top of the Billboard album chart and it led him to have a career as a standup comedian, People magazine noted.
Soon he was appearing on the “Ed Sullivan Show” and that success took him to the big screen in movies like “Hot Millions,”“On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” “Catch-22,” and “Cold Turkey” while he began appearing regularly as a guest on television, Variety noted.
He made two more successful comedy albums before being offered his his own weekly TV variety series in the the 1960s which would eventually lead to “The Bob Newhart Show.”
Speaking to the Los Angeles magazine in 1990, the TV star said, “I tend to find humor in the macabre. I would say 85 percent of me is what you see on the show. And the other 15 percent is a very sick man with a very deranged mind,” The Hollywood Reporter noted.
In November 2020, the actor opened up about his long career and said “I have a theory that when it’s all over … and you go up — [if] I’ve been led to believe to heaven — and there’s a God and he says, ‘What did you do?’ [And] I say, ‘I made people laugh,’ [He will say,] ‘Yeah, get in that real short line over there.”
“Comedy has given me a wonderful life,” he aded. “When I first started out in stand-up, I just remember the sound of laughter,” he once said, per his obituary. “It’s one of the great sounds of the world.”
Inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1993, Newhart also won one a Mark Twain Prize for Humor award in 2002, presented by the Kennedy Center, Variety noted.
His wife of sixty years, Ginnie, passed away in 2023. Newhart is survived by their four children, as well as 10 grandchildren.
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[[{“value”:”
TV legend and comedian Bob Newhart has died following a series of short illnesses, his publicist Jerry Digney announced. He was 94.
Newhart, best known for the characters he played on his popular CBS TV shows “The Bob Newhart Show” in the 70s and later “Newhart” in the 80s, passed away on Thursday at his Los Angeles home, Digney shared, People magazine reported.
The award winning comedian — known for his satirical and deadpan humor — found huge success first in stand-up and later on the big and small screens.
More recently, younger audiences got to know him in “Elf,” the popular 2003 Christmas movie across from Will Ferrell in which he played the lovable role of Papa Elf.
Bob Newhart, Dean of the Deadpan Delivery, Dies at 94 https://t.co/xQDW445ysj
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) July 18, 2024
Newhart spent more than six decades in Hollywood making audiences laugh after deciding that a career as an accountant was not where he wanted to be.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP
“In 1959, I gave myself a year to make it in comedy; it was back to accounting if comedy didn’t work out,” he once said, per his obituary shared by Digney.
He recorded a comedy album in 1959 called “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” and it was a hit. It shot to the top of the Billboard album chart and it led him to have a career as a standup comedian, People magazine noted.
Soon he was appearing on the “Ed Sullivan Show” and that success took him to the big screen in movies like “Hot Millions,”“On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” “Catch-22,” and “Cold Turkey” while he began appearing regularly as a guest on television, Variety noted.
He made two more successful comedy albums before being offered his his own weekly TV variety series in the the 1960s which would eventually lead to “The Bob Newhart Show.”
Speaking to the Los Angeles magazine in 1990, the TV star said, “I tend to find humor in the macabre. I would say 85 percent of me is what you see on the show. And the other 15 percent is a very sick man with a very deranged mind,” The Hollywood Reporter noted.
In November 2020, the actor opened up about his long career and said “I have a theory that when it’s all over … and you go up — [if] I’ve been led to believe to heaven — and there’s a God and he says, ‘What did you do?’ [And] I say, ‘I made people laugh,’ [He will say,] ‘Yeah, get in that real short line over there.”
“Comedy has given me a wonderful life,” he aded. “When I first started out in stand-up, I just remember the sound of laughter,” he once said, per his obituary. “It’s one of the great sounds of the world.”
Inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1993, Newhart also won one a Mark Twain Prize for Humor award in 2002, presented by the Kennedy Center, Variety noted.
His wife of sixty years, Ginnie, passed away in 2023. Newhart is survived by their four children, as well as 10 grandchildren.
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