The ‘Elf’ actor and comedian died at his home in Los Angeles after a long illness.
Bob Newhart, the American stand-up performer whose comedy made him one of the biggest television stars of his era, has died, his publicist announced Thursday. His age was 94 years. The beautifully decorated Chicago icon was an accountant before striking comedy gold, praised for his dry, deadpan delivery.
He died at his Los Angeles home after a brief illness, his longtime publicist Jerry Digney said in a statement.
“In 1959, gave him one year to make it into a comedy. If comedy didn’t work, it was back to the book,” he has said. It did—he was signed to Warner Bros. Records, and Bob Newhart’s The Buttoned-Down Mind became the music industry’s first comedy album to top the sales charts. It won him prestigious Grammys for Best New Artist and One of the Best Albums and helped launch his career in television. The recording is now preserved in the Library of Congress.
The sound of laughter
Newhart starred in two long-running sitcoms in the 1970s and 1980s and made guest-starring appearances in the 90s. He made a recurring guest appearance on The Big Bang Theory and played Papa Elf in the Christmas movie Elf.
His second sitcom — the eight-season New Heart — closed in one of the most memorable series finales of all time. In the last episode, Newhart’s character wakes up in bed with his wife from the first sitcom, telling her about a strange dream — the plot of the second show.
Newhart is survived by four children. Virginia, his wife of six decades, died in 2023. “Comedy has given me a wonderful life. When I first started doing stand-up, I can only remember the sound of laughter,” he once said. “It’s one of the great sounds in the world.”