Comedy and TV legend Bob Newhart dead at 94

Comedian and TV star Bob Newhart has died, ABC News has confirmed. He was 94.

His longtime publicist, Jerry Digney, reported the legendary comedian with the trademark deadpan delivery died at his home in Los Angeles "after a series of short illnesses."

The Chicago native, born George Robert Newhart, became a household name with the release of his 1960 comedy album, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart. It won Newhart three Grammys: Album of the Year, Best New Artist and Best Comedy Album.

After the success of The Button-Down Mind, Newhart got his own variety show with NBC, The Bob Newhart Show. Though it was canceled after one season, Newhart earned an Emmy nomination and a Peabody Award.

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 The Bob Newhart Show. In that show, Newhart played a psychologist named Robert Hartley who was constantly interacting with patients and colleagues.

That 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 — which saw him wake up in his bedroom from The Bob Newhart Show — has been lauded as one of the greatest in television history.

Newhart went on have two other shows, Bob and George and Leo, though neither became the hits that The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart were.

In 2003, he starred in Jon Favreau's holiday classic Elf as Will Ferrell's adoptive father, Papa Elf.

Newhart won his first Emmy in 2013 for a guest-starring role in The Big Bang Theory.

A voice-over artist who lent his talent to films such as The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under, Newhart is survived by four children — Jennifer, Courtney, Timothy and Robert — and numerous grandchildren.

Virginia “Ginnie” Newhart, his wife of 60 years, passed away in 2023.

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