Bob Newhart, the genteel but sharply satirical comic whose TV series “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Newhart” were huge hits throughout the 1970s and ’80s, died Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 94.
Newhart’s publicist Jerry Digney said he died after a series of short illnesses.
Newhart was also known to younger audiences as Papa Elf in the 2003 Christmas classic “Elf,” and most recently appeared in three episodes of “Young Sheldon.”
Before his TV success, Newhart’s comedy albums were wildly popular for their at-the-time new approach of observational humor. He ruled TV for the better part of two decades, first with “The Bob Newhart Show” as a befuddled Chicago psychologist and then on “Newhart” as an equally at-a-loss New England innkeeper. He drew Emmy nominations for actor in a comedy three years running from 1985-87. Both shows were major successes for CBS, and they ran for a total of 16 years between 1972 and 1990.
Surprisingly, his first Emmy win didn’t come until 2013, when he won for a guest acting spot on “The Big Bang Theory.” He appeared in six episodes of the hit sitcom.
Starting in 1960, when his comedy monologue recordings became bestsellers, Newhart ushered in a new style of comedy that did not have its roots in the Borscht Belt or vaudeville but was instead based on observation and psychology. His work opened the door for later, wackier comics like Steve Martin. In his deadpan, stammering delivery as well as in his subject matter, Newhart was quietly subversive, and he touched a nerve both in urban areas and elsewhere.
His debut album, “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart,” was the first comedy album ever to hit the top of the Billboard charts, saving the then-struggling Warner Bros. Records in the process, and his first two albums held the Billboard Nos. 1 and 2 spots simultaneously, a feat unequaled until Guns N’ Roses did it with a pair of discs in 1991.
George Robert Newhart was born in Oak Park, Ill., and came to entertaining via a circuitous route. Studying at Loyola U. in Chicago, he majored in commerce and graduated in 1952, when he entered the U.S. Army. After ending his military service two years later, he entered Loyola’s law school but flunked out in 1956. He then worked a variety of odd jobs while performing in an Oak Park stock company.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Variety