- Newhart , passed away at home after a series of short illnesses.
American stand-up comedy legend Bob Newhart, died at the age of 94.
His publicist Jerry Digney, announced the sad news and said that Newhart , passed away at home after a series of short illnesses.
Newhart, remembered now as the star of two hit television shows of the 1970s and 1980s that bore his name, launched his career as a standup comic in the late 1950s. He gained nationwide fame when his routine was captured on vinyl in 1960 as “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart,” which went on to win a Grammy Award as album of the year.
In one memorable skit, he portrayed a Madison Avenue image-maker urging Abraham Lincoln to quit tinkering with the Gettysburg Address and stick with his speechwriters’ draft.
The son of a plumber in a suburb of Chicago, Newhart graduated with a business degree from Loyola University in 1952.
He served in the Army for two years during the Korean War then enrolled in a graduate law school before dropping out.
He and a friend began recording improvised comedy routines shortly after. In 1959, he was discovered by a local DJ who recommended him to the newly formed Warner Bros Records.
His live recording from a Houston comedy club, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, went on to become the first comedy album to top the charts.