62 Facts About Bob Newhart

George Robert Newhart was an American comedian and actor.

Bob Newhart was known for his deadpan and stammering delivery style.

Bob Newhart received three Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award as well as the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Newhart came to prominence in 1960 when his record album of comedic monologues, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, became a bestseller and reached number one on the Billboard pop album chart and won two Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, and Best New Artist.

Newhart hosted a short-lived NBC variety show, The Bob Newhart Show, before starring as Chicago psychologist Robert Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show from 1972 to 1978.

Bob Newhart starred in two short-lived sitcoms, Bob and George and Leo.

Bob Newhart played Professor Proton on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory from 2013 to 2018, for which he received his first-ever career Emmy Award, for the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.

Bob Newhart reprised his role in The Big Bang Theory prequel spin-off series Young Sheldon.

George Robert Bob Newhart was born on September 5,1929, in Oak Park, Illinois.

Bob Newhart's parents were Julia Pauline, a housewife, and George David Newhart, a part-owner of a plumbing supply business.

Bob Newhart's mother was of Irish descent, while his father was of German and Irish descent.

Bob Newhart went by his middle name, "Bob," to avoid confusion with his father.

Bob Newhart was educated at Catholic schools in the Chicago area, including St Catherine of Siena Grammar School in Oak Park, and attended St Ignatius College Prep, graduating in 1947.

Bob Newhart then enrolled at Loyola University Chicago, from which he graduated in 1952 with a bachelor's degree in business management.

Bob Newhart was drafted into the US Army and, until his discharge, in 1954, served as a US-based clerk during the Korean War.

Bob Newhart briefly attended Loyola University Chicago School of Law, but did not complete a degree, in part, he said, because he had been asked to behave unethically during an internship.

Bob Newhart later said that his motto, "That's close enough," and his habit of adjusting petty cash imbalances with his own money showed that he lacked the temperament of an accountant.

In 1958, Newhart became an advertising copywriter for Fred A Niles, a major independent film and television producer in Chicago.

Bob Newhart expanded his material into a stand-up routine that he began to perform at nightclubs.

Bob Newhart became famous mostly on the strength of his audio releases, in which he played a solo "straight man".

Bob Newhart's routine was to portray one end of a conversation, playing the comedic straight man while implying what the other person was saying.

Newhart's 1960 comedy album The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart was the first comedy album to make number one on the Billboard charts and peaked at number two in the UK Albums Chart.

Bob Newhart told a 2005 interviewer for PBS's American Masters that his favorite stand-up routine was "Abe Lincoln vs Madison Avenue", which appears on this album.

Chicago TV director and future comedian Bill Daily, who was Newhart's castmate on The Bob Newhart Show, suggested the routine to him.

Years later, he released Bob Newhart Off the Record, The Button-Down Concert, and Something Like This, an anthology of his 1960s Warner Bros.

Bob Newhart appeared in a 1963 episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, "How to Get Rid of Your Wife"; and on The Judy Garland Show.

Bob Newhart appeared on series such as Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, Captain Nice, and Insight.

Bob Newhart guest-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 87 times, and hosted Saturday Night Live twice, in 1980 and 1995.

In 1962, Newhart filmed An Evening with Bob Newhart, thought to be the first pay-per-view television special, for Canadian-based Telemeter.

In 1972, soon after he guest-starred on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, he was approached by his agent and his managers, producer Grant Tinker, and actress Mary Tyler Moore, to work on a series called The Bob Newhart Show, to be written by David Davis and Lorenzo Music.

Bob Newhart was very interested in the starring role of psychologist Bob Hartley, with Suzanne Pleshette playing his wry, loving wife, Emily, and Bill Daily as neighbor and friend Howard Borden.

Bob Newhart read the script and he agreed it was very funny.

Bob Newhart just makes it look so easy, and he's not as in-your-face as some might be.

In 1968, Bob Newhart played an annoying software specialist in the film Hot Millions.

Bob Newhart's films include 1970's Alan Jay Lerner musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, the 1971 Norman Lear comedy Cold Turkey, Mike Nichols's war satire Catch-22, the 1977 Disney animated feature The Rescuers and its 1990 sequel The Rescuers Down Under as the voice of Bernard, and he played the president of the United States in the comedy First Family.

Bob Newhart ended in 1990 after eight seasons and 182 episodes.

Bob Newhart realizes that the entire eight-year Newhart series had been a single nightmare of Dr Bob Hartley's, which Emily attributes to eating Japanese food before he went to bed.

Bob Newhart appeared on It's Garry Shandling's Show and Committed, reprised his role as Dr Bob Hartley on Murphy Brown, and appeared as himself on The Simpsons.

Bob Newhart had a role on NCIS as Ducky's mentor and predecessor, a retired forensic pathologist, who was discovered to have Alzheimer's disease.

In 1992, Newhart returned to television with a series about a cartoonist called Bob.

In 1995, Bob Newhart was approached by Showtime to make the first comedy special of his 35-year career, Off the Record, which consisted of him performing material from his first and second albums in front of an audience in Pasadena, California.

In 2003, Bob Newhart guest-starred on three episodes of ER in a rare dramatic role that earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, his first in nearly 20 years.

Bob Newhart "survived" his containment to help O'Brien present the award for Outstanding Comedy Series.

In 2013, Bob Newhart appeared in an episode of the sixth season of The Big Bang Theory playing the aged Professor Proton, a former science TV show host turned children's party entertainer, for which he was awarded a Primetime Emmy Award.

At that year's Emmy ceremony, Bob Newhart appeared as a presenter with The Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons and received a standing ovation.

Bob Newhart continued to play the character periodically through the show's 12th and final season and on its spinoff Young Sheldon.

On December 19,2014, the 85-year-old Bob Newhart made a surprise appearance on the final episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, where he was revealed to be the person inside Secretariat, Ferguson's on-set pantomime horse.

In June 2015, Bob Newhart appeared on another series finale, that of Hot in Cleveland, playing the father-in-law of Joy Scroggs.

Bob Newhart was known for his deadpan delivery and a slight stammer that he incorporated early on into the persona around which he built a successful career.

On January 12,1963, Bob Newhart married Virginia Lillian "Ginnie" Quinn.

Bob Newhart was a daughter of character actor Bill Quinn, and met Newhart via an introduction by comedian Buddy Hackett.

Bob Newhart was a member of the Church of the Good Shepherd and the related Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California.

Bob Newhart was the uncle of actor and comedian Paul Brittain.

Don Rickles and Bob Newhart appeared together on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on January 24,2005, the Monday following Johnny Carson's death, reminiscing about their many appearances on Carson's show.

For over 25 years, Bob Newhart's family lived in a mansion in Bel Air.

Bob Newhart sold the property to developers in May 2016 for $14.5 million.

In 1995, Bob Newhart was one of several investors in Rotijefco, which bought radio station KKSB in Santa Barbara, California.

Bob Newhart was an early home-computer hobbyist, purchasing the Commodore PET after its 1977 introduction.

In 1985, Bob Newhart was hospitalized for secondary polycythemia, a condition attributed to his years of heavy smoking.

Bob Newhart recovered after several weeks and eventually quit smoking.

Bob Newhart died from complications of several short illnesses at his home in Los Angeles on July 18,2024, at the age of 94.

Bob Newhart is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.