Bob Newhart, Famed Actor and Stand-Up Comedian, Dead at 94

Bob Newhart, the legendary comedian and actor whose humor was unparalleled, has died, ET has confirmed. He was 94.

In a statement to ET, Newhart’s longtime publicist, Jerry Digney, said Newhart died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles following a series of short illnesses. The cause of death was not disclosed.

Beloved for his mild-mannered satire and observational comedy, Newhart’s impact in television and comedy spanned decades. 

Born George Robert Newhart, the popular entertainer rose to fame in the early 1960s after three celebrated appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. 

Newhart went on to become a household name with his 1960 recorded performance, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart. The stand-up comedy album became the first of its genre to hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts and landed him two GRAMMY Awards for Album of the Year and Best New Artist. 

Newhart later released two more comedy albums, including The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back! (also in 1960), which earned him his second GRAMMY Award in the Best Comedy — Spoken Word category. 

A year later, Newhart ventured into the world of television with a variety program, The Bob Newhart Show. The single-season series earned him an Emmy nomination as well as a Peabody Award. Over a decade after the first show’s success, Newhart created a sitcom of the same name that ran from 1972 through 1978. 

In the sitcom, Newhart played a psychologist, Dr. Bob Hartley, based in Chicago. The show’s colorful cast included his loving, albeit sarcastic, wife Emily, who was played by Suzanne Pleshette, and the pesky neighbor Howard Borden, played by Bill Daily. 

His second eponymous sitcom, Newhart, ran from 1982 to 1990 and was set in a small town of Vermont, where he played an innkeeper, Dick Loudon, at an establishment always full of comedic happenings. The show received three Emmy nominations throughout its run. 

The series finale of Newhart, which aired in May 1990, is etched into TV sitcom history for its iconic, full-circle ending. Bob’s character wakes up in bed next to Pleshette, his TV wife from The Bob Newhart Show, and says, “Honey, wake up, you won’t believe the dream I just had! I was an innkeeper in this crazy little town in Vermont!”

Throughout the ’90s, Newhart headed two more sitcoms, Bob from 1992 to 1993 and George & Leo from 1997 to 1998. 

Younger generations will recognize Newhart from his role in Will Ferrell’s beloved 2003 Christmas movie, Elf, where he played Buddy’s adoptive father at the North Pole. 

He also made several guest appearances on The Big Bang Theory. In 2013, he earned his first Emmy Award — after seven nominations for his previous work — for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. His character, Professor Proton, later made a guest appearance on the prequel series, Young Sheldon. 

Newhart married his wife, Ginny, in 1963 and the two welcomed four children — Robert, Timothy, Jennifer and Courtney. 

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