Bob Newhart, the iconic comedian known for his deadpan delivery, two eponymous sitcoms and his role as Papa Elf in the holiday classic “Elf,” has died at age 94, his longtime publicist Jerry Digney announced on Thursday.
The Emmy winner died after “a series of short illnesses,” Digney said in a press release. He called Newhart’s passing the “end of an era in comedy.”
The press release highlighted a Newhart quote that reflected his typically modest approach to his long career: “In 1959, I gave myself a year to make it in comedy; it was back to accounting if comedy didn’t work out.”
Clearly, comedy was the right calling for the former accountant. He was known for his one-side telephone conversations in his routines, something he even managed to work into the 1962 Steve McQueen war drama “Hell Is for Heroes.”
In 1972, he landed his first sitcom, “The Bob Newhart Show,” in which he played a Chicago psychologist with kooky clients, a not-too-bright pilot neighbor (Bill Daily) and his lovely and smart wife, Emily (Suzanne Pleshette). The MTM production, which also costarred future “Simpsons” voice actress Marcia Wallace, ran for six seasons on CBS.
The comedian’s second sitcom, simply titled “Newhart,” debuted in 1982 and ran for eight seasons. In it, he played a former New Yorker who relocates to a small town in Vermont where he and his wife (Mary Frann) run a historic inn. The series brought back his ’70s costar Tom Poston as inept handyman George Utley, with an ensemble that included late “Bosom Buddies” star Peter Scolari and Julia Duffy.
In what is widely regarded as one of the greatest sitcom endings of all time, in 1990’s final episode of “Newhart,” the actor woke up in bed with his previous TV wife, Pleshette, and proceeded to tell her the strange dream he had about being an innkeeper in “the craziest little town in Vermont.”
Newhart was nominated three years running for the ’80s sitcom, but didn’t win his first Emmy until 2013, for a guest spot as Professor Proton on “The Big Bang Theory.” During his acceptance speech, the visibly moved star told the bandleader, “Spike, I’m gonna need a little more time because this is my seventh shot at this.”
In addition to his sitcom acting and writing nods, Newhart was also nominated for guest roles on “ER” and 2008’s “The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice.”
Another memorable TV moment was Newhart’s cameo in the 1996 episode of “The Simpsons,” “Bart the Fink,” in which he gives an awkward, impromptu eulogy to Krusty the Klown, despite the fact that he was at the cemetery for a different funeral.
Besides his role opposite Will Ferrell in “Elf,” Newhart also voiced Bernard the mouse in the 1977 animated film “The Rescuers,” and appeared in “Legally Blonde 2,” “In & Out,” “Horrible Bosses” and Mike Nichols’ all-star 1970 war satire “Catch-22.”
In his lifetime, Newhart won three Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist in 1960 and Best Album of the Year for 1961’s “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart.” In 1962, he won a Golden Globe as host of his self-titled variety show.
He was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2002. In 2004, TV Land unveiled a life-sized statue of Newhart as his 1970s character on the Magnificent Mile, the site of the office he’s seen bustling to in the iconic opening credits. The statue was later moved to the sculpture park in front of Chicago’s Navy Pier entertainment complex. Loyola University Chicago also honored him in 2012 by naming one venue the Newhart Family Theatre.
