Bob Newhart Obituary | TV Comedy

Bob Newhart, who has died aged 94, had a deadpan delivery, punctuated by an occasional stuttering hesitation, that made him an unlikely candidate to become one of America’s most famous comedians. It was in his nature to ensure that his successes often went unnoticed.

Newhart burst onto the scene with the 1960 release of The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, a recording of his very first stand-up performance a few months earlier. It reached number one on the record charts, followed six months later by The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!, which rose to number two, behind its predecessor. His debut album won the 1961 Grammy for Album of the Year, the follow-up won Best Spoken Comedy Album, and Newhart was named Best New Artist.

Newhart’s preferred format was the one-sided telephone conversation, where the audience’s understanding of what the speaker cannot see makes Newhart his own straight man. Abraham Lincoln’s public relations officer in Washington tries to stop him from changing the Gettysburg Address (“You changed eighty-seven to 87? Abe, that’s an eye-catcher!”). A West India Company official listens as Walter Raleigh sings the praises of the 80 tons of leaves he is shipping to London (“So what do you do, Walt? You set it on fire! You breathe the smoke, huh! You know, Walt … you look like you could stand in front of your fireplace and have the same thing for yourself!”).

In 1961, Newhart made his debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall, appeared in Don Siegel’s war film Hell Is for Heroes (he performed a variation of his act on a talkie), and starred in his first television series, The Bob Newhart Show, a variety and sketch comedy show that followed Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall on NBC. Although it lasted only one season, it won an Emmy and a Peabody Award.

The key to Newhart’s immediate success was his “buttoned-up” persona. It was the beginning of President John Kennedy’s “new frontier,” where what British fashion critic John Taylor described as the “mocked negligence” of the unpadded gray flannel suit signified a certain comfort and style, as well as a sober conformity. Newhart’s analysis of accepted everyday life was entertaining but acerbic; a form of subtle satire.

It was a laid-back approach that he had carefully honed. Born George Robert in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Newhart grew up with the nickname “Bob” to distinguish him from his father, George David, who co-owned a plumbing and heating company. His mother, Pauline (née Burns), was a homemaker. He attended Catholic schools and earned a degree in business management from Loyola University Chicago in 1952. After two years in the Army as a clerk, he entered Loyola Law School, but soon left school to begin working as an accountant.

At one of his jobs, he and a colleague, Ed Gallagher, began recording dialogue in the style of Bob and Ray, an innovative comedy duo. Gallagher moved to Newhart in New York, and Newhart began writing advertising copy for a Chicago production company, while circulating his own tapes.

Local radio personality Dan Sorkin played a few tunes, and Newhart began appearing on local morning television. The tapes made their way to record producer George Avakian, who had left Columbia Records in 1958 to start a similar company for Warner Brothers. Avakian wanted to see Newhart perform immediately; the February 1960 show at Houston’s Tidelands Club—which became his first record—was held at the first venue Newhart’s quickly acquired agent could find to book.

After the success of The Bob Newhart Show, he immediately took up stand-up comedy. His intelligence and easygoing demeanor made him a popular guest on other talk shows, and he eventually became a regular replacement for Johnny Carson on Tonight. Although he was accused by comedian Shelley Berman of plagiarizing the phone-in gimmick, the format had long been used by performers such as George Jessel and Arlene Harris. It was his knowing but hesitant attitude (which he said was sometimes influenced by George Gobel) that made him such a versatile performer.

Comedian Buddy Hackett introduced Newhart to Ginnie (Virginia) Quinn, the daughter of actor Bill Quinn. They married in 1963, and their enduring alliance became a running joke when he appeared with the thrice-married Carson.

Newhart’s film roles were infrequent but often revealing: he played Major Major in Mike Nichols’ adaptation of Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22 (1970); he played Gene Wilder’s sidekick in the Odd Couple-style TV movie Thursday’s Game (1974); and he played Papa Elf opposite Will Ferrell in Elf (2003). He also lent his voice, notably as the rescue mouse Bernard, to The Rescuers (1977) and its sequel, The Rescuers Down Under (1990).

He starred in two unusually long-running television series. On The Bob Newhart Show (1972–78), he played a psychologist: the perfect embodiment of his stand-up act, which consisted of listening and commenting. The series grew out of an appearance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and was produced by Mary Tyler Moore and Grant Tinker’s MTM Productions. Starring Suzanne Pleshette as his schoolteacher wife and Peter Bonerz as the dentist with whom he shares an office, the show was an immediate success. As ratings plummeted and Newhart grew tired of it, he at one point turned down a script that featured children. “It’s very funny,” he told the producers. “Who’s going to play Bob?”

He returned in 1982 with Newhart, playing Dick Loudon, a writer who moves with his wife (Mary Frann) to a rural Vermont inn. With a cast that included Tom Poston, who would earn three Emmy nominations as the eccentric handyman George, Newhart became the center of a world whose chaos tested the kind of calm understanding for which he was known.

In 1985, Newhart was diagnosed with a blood disorder, polycythemia, caused by smoking. After acting out tobacco and starring, with Poston, in Norman Lear’s comedy Cold Turkey (1971), in which a town tries to win $25 million from a tobacco company by quitting smoking for a month, he has now quit himself.

As Newhart comes to an end after eight seasons, a classic final episode, which recaps the famous Dallas finale, has been kept under wraps by the cast and crew. Hit by a golf ball, Newhart wakes up in the Bob Newhart Show bedroom, next to Pleshette, complaining about a crazy dream he had about Vermont.

Two other series were less successful. Bob (1992-93) featured him as a cartoonist trying to adjust to the corporate world when a character he created is resurrected. George and Leo (1997-98) was another Odd Couple storyline, in which his bookstore owner shares an apartment with his son’s stepfather (Judd Hirsch), who is on the run from the mob. Newhart jokes about the title: “We’d used up every variation of my name; it was just ‘Le.'”

In 2003, Newhart appeared in the three-part ER, in which Sherry Stringfield, as Dr. Lewis, helps Ben Hollander, a suicidal character played by Newhart, adjust to his impending blindness. He was nominated again in 2009 for a supporting role in The Librarian, but won the Emmy in 2013, playing Arthur Jeffries in the comedy The Big Bang Theory. Jeffries plays Professor Proton, host of the science television series (based on Watch Mr. Wizard) followed by the genius Sheldon. He was nominated twice more and reprised the role three times in Young Sheldon.

Newhart’s long-standing comedic friendship with Don Rickles was the subject of Bob and Don: A Love Story, a 2022 documentary short directed by Judd Apatow.

Ginny died in 2023, and Newhart is survived by his sons, Robert and Timothy, and his daughters, Courtney and Jennifer.

• Bob (George Robert) Newhart, comedian and actor; born September 5, 1929; died July 18, 2024