Bob Newhart, Stuttering Stand-Up Legend and ‘Elf’ Star, Dies at 94
Bob Newhart, the comedian whose laidback, deadpan delivery earned him the love of American audiences and the admiration of generations of stand-ups who came after him, has died. He was 94.
The “accountant-turned-entertainment icon,” as the statement from his longtime publicist Jerry Digney characterized him, died after “a series of short illnesses.” Digney hailed his death as the “end of an era in comedy.”
From the early 1960s through the late 1980s, Newhart starred on a series of beloved eponymous comedy shows, including the short-lived but celebrated variety series The Bob Newhart Show, a sitcom of the same name, and another sitcom called Newhart.