CBS via Getty Images
Bob Newhart, the elegant yet sharply satirical comedian whose TV series “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Newhart” were huge hits in the 1970s and ’80s, died Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 94.
Newhart’s publicist, Jerry Digney, said he died after several brief illnesses.
Newhart is known to younger audiences for his role as the dad elf in the 2003 Christmas classic “Elf,” as well as for his guest appearances on “The Big Bang Theory” (for which he won his only Emmy for a guest role in 2013) and most recently for three episodes of “Young Sheldon.”
Prior to his television success, Newhart’s comedy albums were hugely popular for their then-new approach to observational humor. He dominated television for nearly two decades, first playing a bewildered Chicago psychologist on “The Bob Newhart Show” and then an equally bewildered New England innkeeper on “Newhart.” He was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Actor three consecutive years from 1985-87. Both shows were huge hits for CBS, airing for a total of 16 years from 1972 to 1990.
Amazingly, his first Emmy win came in 2013 for his guest role in The Big Bang Theory, a hit sitcom he appeared in six episodes of.
From 1960 onwards, his recordings of comic monologues became best-sellers, and Newhart pioneered a new style of comedy based on observation and psychology that had no roots in the Borsch Belt or vaudeville. His work paved the way for later eccentric comedians such as Steve Martin. Quietly rebellious in his deadpan, stuttering style and subject matter, Newhart struck a chord with audiences in urban areas and beyond.
His debut album, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, became the first comedy album to top the Billboard charts, saving the struggling Warner Bros. Records, and his first two albums simultaneously reached number one and number two on the Billboard charts, a feat unmatched until Guns N’ Roses achieved it with two discs in 1991.
George Robert Newhart was born in Oak Park, Illinois, and took a circuitous route into show business. He attended Loyola University in Chicago, majoring in business, and then enlisted in the U.S. Army. After completing his military service two years later, he enrolled in Loyola’s law school, but dropped out in 1956. He then worked a variety of odd jobs while acting for a stock company in Oak Park.
Newhart and friend Ed Gallagher recorded some of their conversations and tried to sell them to radio stations. Although the tapes didn’t sell, Newhart’s monologue caught the eye of Chicago DJ Dan Sorkin, who gave Newhart his first job in radio, which lasted only five weeks.
But Sorkin introduced him to James Conkling, president of Warner Bros. Records, who booked him at the Tidelands nightclub in Houston and recorded his performance. The live album, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, became an instant best-seller in 1960, and was followed by The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back and Behind the Button-Down Mind.
Not only was “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” a smash hit, it also earned Newhart three Grammy Awards in 1961. Nominated for Best New Artist and Comedy Performance (Spoken Word), the LP became the first comedy record to be named Album of the Year.
In a 2007 NPR article about the success of Newhart’s first album, Conan O’Brien described Newhart’s style as “premise” comedy, meaning it has long, drawn-out scenarios. The individual lines aren’t particularly funny, but the overall effect is. Jerry Seinfeld is another comedian who uses a similar approach.
“A change was happening, and I was a part of it,” Newhart told Guy MacPherson for his Comedy Couch blog in 2006. “There was Mike and Elaine[Nichols and May]Shelley Berman, Mort Sahl, myself, Johnny Winters, Lenny Bruce. We wouldn’t do ‘Take Your Wife’ jokes. We wouldn’t do ‘jokes.’ We were doing little vignettes. So, there was a change in comedy. I mean, it’s not like we all got together and conspired to say, let’s change comedy. It was just our way of finding the funny things in the world.”
Newhart’s recordings proved immensely popular, leading to guest appearances on “The Jack Parr Show” and “The Gary Moore Show,” but he also toured the country performing one-night shows, culminating in a performance at Carnegie Hall in 1961. This sold-out performance led to his film debut in the Paramount comedy “Hell Is for Heroes.”
Newhart worked in films (Hot Millions, One Fine Day at a Time, Catch-22, Cold Turkey), made regular guest appearances on television and had a successful career in Las Vegas for several years before landing a role in a hit sitcom.
He tried television series again with less success on CBS’s Bob from 1992-1993, and then again on CBS’ George & Leo, also starring Judd Hirsch, from 1997-1998.
Newhart subsequently received an Emmy nomination in 2003 for her role as a blind librarian in ER, and again in 2008 for her role in the TV movie The Curse of Judas.
Newhart hosted episodes of Saturday Night Live in 1980 and 1995, lent his voice to a 1996 episode of The Simpsons, appeared in 17 episodes of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson from 1966 to 1992 (three times as guest host), and appeared in five episodes of the Leno version from 1998 to 2009. He also appeared as himself in a 2002 episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, and co-hosted the 2006 Emmy Awards with Conan O’Brien, later serving as a co-presenter in the comedy series.
Newhart continued to make occasional film appearances in her later years, appearing in films such as In-N-Out (1997), Legally Blonde 2 (2003), and Elf (2003).
The comedian continued to perform stand-up into his 70s, performing about 30 nights a year as of 2006. He was pleased that his material from the 1960s had not aged well. Newhart’s first comedy special, “Off the Record,” aired on Showtime in 1995.
“The audience was mostly 35- to 40-year-olds,” Newhart told McPherson on his Comedy Couch blog. “I re-performed some songs from my original first and second albums and they worked just as well as they did the first time. I think the songs still hold up… The Abraham Lincoln routine probably holds up better now than it did 40 years ago.”
His book, “I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This,” a mix of memoirs and comedy, was published in 2006.
Newhart was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 1993, and the comedian received the second Mark Twain Award for Humor, presented by the Kennedy Center, in 2002. In 2007, “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” was selected as one of 25 recordings for inclusion in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
His wife, Ginny, died last year. He is survived by his children, Robert Jr., Timothy, Courtney and Jennifer, and 10 grandchildren.
