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Bob Newhart, the distinguished but satirical comedian whose television 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 a series of short illnesses.
Newhart was also known to young audiences as Papa Elf in the 2003 Christmas classic “Elf,” and more recently appeared in three episodes of “Young Sheldon.”
Before his success on television, Bob Newhart’s comedy albums were popular for their fresh take on observational humor. He dominated television for nearly two decades, first on “The Bob Newhart Show” as a disoriented Chicago psychologist, and then on “Newhart” as an equally disoriented New England innkeeper. He was nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy for three consecutive years, from 1985 to 1987. Both shows were major hits for CBS, and they aired for a total of 16 years, from 1972 to 1990.
Surprisingly, he didn’t win his first Emmy until 2013, when he was recognized for a guest role on “The Big Bang Theory.” He appeared in six episodes of the hit sitcom.
Beginning in the 1960s, when his stand-up recordings became best-sellers, Newhart pioneered a new style of comedy that drew not on the Borscht Belt or vaudeville but was based instead on observation and psychology. His work paved the way for later, wilder comedians like Steve Martin. In his deadpan, stuttering delivery and subject matter, Newhart was quietly subversive, and he struck a chord in urban areas as well as elsewhere.
His debut album, “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart,” was the first comedy album to top the Billboard charts, saving ailing Warner Bros. Records, and his first two albums simultaneously peaked at No. 1 and No. 2 on the Billboard charts, a feat unmatched until Guns N’ Roses did it with a pair of albums in 1991.
George Robert Newhart was born in Oak Park, Illinois, and came to the world of show business by a circuitous route. A student at Loyola University Chicago, he majored in business and graduated in 1952, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army. After completing his military service two years later, he entered Loyola Law School, but failed in 1956. He then worked odd jobs while performing in an Oak Park troupe.
Newhart and a friend, Ed Gallagher, recorded some of their conversations and tried to sell them to radio stations. The tapes didn’t sell, but Newhart’s monologues were noticed by Chicago DJ Dan Sorkin, who offered him his first radio job, which lasted only five weeks.
But Sorkin introduced him to Warner Bros. Records president James Conkling, who secured him gigs at the Houston nightclub Tidelands and recorded his performances. The live album “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” became an immediate best-seller in 1960, followed by “The Button Down Mind Strikes Back” and “Behind the Button-Down Mind.”
In addition to exceptional sales, “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” earned Newhart three Grammy Awards in 1961: he won Best New Artist and the nomination for Comedy Performance (Spoken Word), and the LP became the first comedy record to be honored as Album of the Year.
In a 2007 NPR article about the success of Newhart’s debut album, Conan O’Brien described what Newhart did as “premise” comedy—laying out a plot in detail; no individual line is funny, but the overall effect is. Jerry Seinfeld is among the comedians who use a similar approach.
“There was a change going on, and I was a part of it,” Newhart told Guy MacPherson of the Comedy Couch blog in 2006. “There was Mike and Elaine[Nichols & May]Shelley Berman, Mort Sahl, myself, Johnny Winters and Lenny Bruce. We weren’t doing ‘take my wife, please’ jokes. We weren’t doing ‘jokes’; we were doing little vignettes. So there was a change in comedy. I mean, we didn’t all get together and have a cabal and say ‘let’s change comedy’; it was just our way of finding out what was funny in the world.”
Newhart’s wildly popular recordings led to appearances on “The Jack Paar Show” and “The Gary Moore Show.” But for a time, Newhart toured the country doing one-night stands, culminating at Carnegie Hall in 1961. That sold-out engagement led to his film debut in the Paramount comedy “Hell Is for Heroes.”
Newhart worked in films (“Hot Millions,” “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” “Catch-22,” “Cold Turkey”), was a regular guest on television and appeared in Las Vegas for the next few years before his hit sitcoms.
He tried his luck in series television again in 1992-93 with the less successful series “Bob” on CBS, and then again with “George and Leo” on CBS, also starring Judd Hirsch, in 1997-98.
In subsequent years, Newhart received Emmy nominations for his role as a librarian losing his sight in “ER” in 2003 and another nomination for the TV movie “The Curse of the Judas Chalice” in 2008.
Newhart hosted episodes of “Saturday Night Live” in 1980 and 1995; voiced a 1996 episode of “The Simpsons”; appeared in 17 episodes of “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson” between 1966 and 1992 (guest-starring three times) and five in the Leno version between 1998 and 2009; appeared as himself in a 2002 episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond”; and was part of an elaborate gag at the 2006 Emmy Awards hosted by Conan O’Brien, before co-hosting the comedy series award.
Newhart also made a few big screen appearances in her later years, appearing in “In & Out” (1997), “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde” (2003) and “Elf” (2003).
The comedian was still doing stand-up in his 70s, performing about 30 nights a year in 2006. He was pleased to discover that his 1960s material hadn’t aged a bit. Newhart made his first comedy special, “Off the Record,” for Showtime in 1995.
“The audience was mostly in their 35s and 40s,” Newhart told MacPherson of the Comedy Couch blog. “I took some of the original material from the first and second albums and it worked exactly the same way it did the first time. I guess the material is just as relevant today… The Abe Lincoln number is probably more relevant today than it was 40 years ago.”
His book “I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This,” a mix of memories and comedic moments, was published in 2006.
Newhart was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1993, and the comic won the second Mark Twain Prize for Humor, presented by the Kennedy Center, in 2002. In 2007, “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” was selected as one of 25 entries 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.
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News Source : variety.com
