Bob Newhart Dead: Iconic Comedian Was 94

Bob Newhart, the genteel however sharply satirical comedian whose TV collection “The Bob Newhart Present” and “Newhart” had been big hits all through the Seventies and ’80s, died Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 94. 

Newhart’s publicist Jerry Digney mentioned he died after a collection of brief sicknesses. 

Newhart was additionally identified to youthful audiences as Papa Elf within the 2003 Christmas basic “Elf,” his visitor spots on “The Massive Bang Idea” (for which he gained his solely Emmy, as a visitor star in 2013) and most lately appeared in three episodes of “Younger Sheldon.”

“The Massive Bang Idea” creator Chuck Lorre remembered Newhart, saying in a press release, “For years I begged Bob to look on certainly one of my exhibits. He all the time mentioned no. However then he fell in love with ‘The Massive Bang Idea’ and mentioned sure – with two provisions. One: his character needed to have an arc that spanned a number of episodes. And two: he wished to win an Emmy. We delivered on each. I started working with a comedy legend. A grasp of the craft, and a sort and mild man. I even obtained to name him a pal. How fortunate am I?”

Earlier than his TV success, Newhart’s comedy albums had been wildly standard for his or her at-the-time new method of observational humor. He dominated TV for the higher a part of 20 years, first with “The Bob Newhart Present” as a befuddled Chicago psychologist after which on “Newhart” as an equally at-a-loss New England innkeeper. He drew Emmy nominations for actor in a comedy three years working from 1985-87. Each exhibits had been main successes for CBS, they usually ran for a complete of 16 years between 1972 and 1990.

Surprisingly, his first Emmy win didn’t come till 2013, when he gained for a visitor appearing spot on “The Massive Bang Idea.” He appeared in six episodes of the hit sitcom. 

Beginning in 1960, when his comedy monologue recordings turned bestsellers, Newhart ushered in a brand new fashion of comedy that didn’t have its roots within the Borscht Belt or vaudeville however was as an alternative primarily based on remark and psychology. His work opened the door for later, wackier comics like Steve Martin. In his deadpan, stammering supply in addition to in his material, Newhart was quietly subversive, and he touched a nerve each in city areas and elsewhere.

His debut album, “The Button-Down Thoughts of Bob Newhart,” was the primary comedy album ever to hit the highest of the Billboard charts, saving the then-struggling Warner Bros. Data within the course of, and his first two albums held the Billboard Nos. 1 and a couple of spots concurrently, a feat unequaled till Weapons N’ Roses did it with a pair of discs in 1991.

George Robert Newhart was born in Oak Park, Unwell., and got here to entertaining through a circuitous route. Finding out at Loyola U. in Chicago, he majored in commerce and graduated in 1952, when he entered the U.S. Military. After ending his army service two years later, he entered Loyola’s regulation college however flunked out in 1956. He then labored quite a lot of odd jobs whereas performing in an Oak Park inventory firm.

Newhart and a pal, Ed Gallagher, recorded a few of their conversations and tried to promote them to radio stations. The tapes didn’t promote, however Newhart’s monologues had been observed by Chicago DJ Dan Sorkin, who gave Newhart his first radio job, which lasted solely 5 weeks.

However Sorkin launched him to the president of Warner Bros. Data, James Conkling, who secured him bookings in Houston nightclub the Tidelands and recorded his performances. Reside album “The Button-Down Thoughts of Bob Newhart” was a direct bestseller in 1960, adopted by “The Button Down Thoughts Strikes Again” and “Behind the Button-Down Thoughts.”

Along with boffo gross sales, “The Button-Down Thoughts of Bob Newhart” earned Newhart three Grammys in 1961: He gained one of the best new artist prize and the comedy efficiency (spoken phrase) nod, and the LP turned the primary comedy report to be honored as album of the yr.

In a 2007 NPR story on the success of Newhart’s first album, Conan O’Brien described what Newhart did as “premise” comedy — laying out a state of affairs at size; no particular person line is that humorous, however the total impact is. Jerry Seinfeld is among the many comedians who use the same method.

“There was a change that was happening, of which I used to be a part of,” Newhart advised Man MacPherson of the Comedy Sofa weblog in 2006. “There was Mike and Elaine (Nichols & Might), Shelley Berman, Mort Sahl, myself, Johnny Winters and Lenny Bruce. We weren’t doing ‘take my spouse, please’ jokes. We weren’t doing ‘jokes’; we had been doing little vignettes. So there was a change in comedy. I imply, we didn’t all get collectively and have a cabal and say let’s change comedy; it was simply our method of discovering what was humorous on this planet.”

Newhart’s immensely standard recordings led to visitor appearances on “The Jack Paar Present” and “The Gary Moore Present.” However for a time, Newhart traveled the nation doing one-night gigs, culminating at Carnegie Corridor in 1961. That sold-out engagement led to his film debut in Paramount’s comedy “Hell Is for Heroes.”

Newhart labored in films (“Sizzling Hundreds of thousands,”“On a Clear Day You Can See Perpetually,” “Catch-22,” “Chilly Turkey”), guested repeatedly on tv and appeared in Las Vegas for the subsequent a number of years earlier than his hit sitcoms.

He tried collection tv once more in 1992-93 with the much less profitable “Bob” on CBS, and once more with CBS’ “George and Leo,” additionally starring Judd Hirsch, in 1997-98.

In later years, Newhart drew an Emmy nom for taking part in a librarian shedding his eyesight on “ER” in 2003 and one other nom for 2008 TV film “The Curse of the Judas Chalice.”

Newhart hosted episodes of “Saturday Evening Reside” in 1980 and 1995; voiced himself on a 1996 episode of “The Simpsons”; appeared on 17 episodes of “The Tonight Present With Johnny Carson” between 1966 and 1992 (visitor internet hosting 3 times) and 5 on the Leno model between 1998 and 2009; appeared as himself in a 2002 episode of “Everyone Loves Raymond”; and was a part of an elaborate gag on the 2006 Emmy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien, earlier than co-presenting the award for comedy collection.

Newhart additionally did occasional bigscreen work in his later years, showing in “In & Out” (1997), “Legally Blonde 2: Crimson, White & Blonde” (2003) and “Elf” (2003).

The comedian was nonetheless doing standup in his 70s, performing about 30 nights a yr as of 2006. He discovered to his delight that the fabric from his Nineteen Sixties hadn’t aged. Newhart did his first comedy particular, “Off the Document,” for Showtime in 1995.

“The viewers was largely 35 to 40 years previous,” Newhart advised MacPherson of the Comedy Sofa weblog. “I reprised a number of the unique first and second album materials and it labored in precisely the identical method it labored the primary time. I suppose the fabric is as related as we speak… The Abe Lincoln routine might be extra related as we speak than it was 40-some years in the past.”

His e book “I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This,” mixing reminiscences with bits of comedy, was printed in 2006.

Newhart was inducted into the Academy of Tv Arts & Sciences Corridor of Fame in 1993, and the comedian gained the second Mark Twain Prize for Humor, introduced by the Kennedy Middle, in 2002. In 2007 “The Button-Down Thoughts of Bob Newhart” was chosen as certainly one of 25 entries into the Nationwide Recording Registry on the Library of Congress.

His spouse Ginny died final yr. He’s survived by his youngsters, Robert Jr., Timothy, Courtney and Jennifer, and 10 grandchildren.