Posted on 07/18/2024 1:15:07 PM PDT by DFG
Iconic actor Bob Newhart has died aged 94.
The comedy legend passed away at his LA home on Thursday after a series of short illnesses, his longtime publicist, Jerry Digney, announced to THR.
Newhart began his career as a stand-up comedian before launching a hugely successful acting career.
His accolades include three Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award.
He famously starred as Papa Elf in 2003 Will Ferrell comedy, Elf and played Susan Mayer's stepfather Morty Flicker in Desperate Housewives in 2005.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Homeschooled by boomers, I got spoonfed a great selection of old movies and tv. I saw every episode of Newhart’s shows. Just thinking about that witch in the basement episode makes me grin! And when he told that woman, “Just stop it!” (or I’ll bury you...). LOL. Master of drollery, he was.
Say what you will about youtube, it has preserved treasures like Newhart. Nothing today compares to him.
RIP and thanks for the gift of laughter.
I thought he was already dead so now I have no grief
Don Rickles made it to 90.
-PJ
That ending was a classic. My wife shouted out O MY GOD because she recognized the bed Bob was sleeping in and then Suzanne Pleshette rolled over. Absolutely classic ending.
Great comedian. RIP, Bob. Thanks for the laughter!
I heard his first albums as a kid in the 1960's when my dad and his friends played them at parties. Yes, the old phono recirds.
The "Grace L Fergason Airline and Storm door Company" and the "Driving Instructor" routines on his Button Down album are still hilarious and worth a YouTube search
Rip Bob.
RIP, always seemed like a lovely man.
Henny Youngman, 91.
Sid Caesar, 91.
Milton Berle, 93.
George Burns, 100.
Shecky Greene, 97.
Shelley Berman, 92.
Carl Reiner, 98.
Unlike Bob Newhart, those guys are all Jews. Bob Hope held on for a while, too.
Clint Eastwood lives!
Bob Hope, 100.
-PJ
Don’t say Clint Eastwood!!!! (93)
Dick Van Dyke? (98)
A down to earth guy. Long ago I heard an interview with him about his early career.
He was cast in the 1962 WW2 film ‘Hell Is For Heroes’. There were some heavyweight actors in the film including Steve McQueen and James Coburn.
Newhart had no experience acting and was kind of surprised they wanted him, especially in a serious drama. He said “I just pretended I knew what I was doing, and that’s what I’ve done ever since”.
A funny guy who didn’t have to resort to over-the-top antics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaEQRYeAF9w
A 3 minute video from the late show with Craig Ferguson.
I think in a Craig Ferguson interview, Newhart told the story of him doing a bit for a movie or something. The director said something like - “Okay - now can you do it without the stammering.”
“Well I could, but I won’t. This stammering has gotten me two vacation homes and a yacht!”
You might think it was an awful movie but a lot of kids and many adults (or morons like me) loved it and Bob loved it too and knew it would become a classic Christmas movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVWHBHBLU80
And his appearance in that movie along with other more recent gigs, including as Professor Proton on The Big Bang Theory, kicked off a 2nd career at a time when a lot of actor/comedians of his age just didn’t get work.
And even more importantly the renewed attention meant that his stand-up classics are now available on streaming to a younger generation and his 2 previous sitcoms have a whole new audience to a younger generation who otherwise would never known who he was and they are very popular.
I’m in my early 60’s, and I barely remember The Bob Newhart Show from the early 70’s but I did watch Newhart in the 80’s. But for most people younger than me, the only thing most of them know him from is from Elf or The Big Bang Theory.
It’s sort of like when Jackie Gleason made those Smokey and the Bandit movies. A lot of kids back then, even “kids” my own age, in the late 70’s and early 80’s didn’t know who he was except for those movies. I only knew the Honeymooners from re-runs on a fuzzy UFH TV station when I was a wee little and home sick from school and I only watched that because I Love Lucy would come on next.
One of the very best. Cannot be replaced. Rest in peace.
“Well I could, but I won’t. This stammering has gotten me two vacation homes and a yacht!”
Oh I love the Newhart stammer.
Who could do something so blatantly moronic?
Bob: Th-th-th-that would be me
Always like him. RIP.
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