Former accountant Bob Newhart – born in Oak Park, Illinois on September 5, 1929 - became an American television icon in the 1970s with his hit situation comedy The Bob Newhart Show, co-starring Suzanne Pleshette, which ran for six years. He followed it in 1982 with another smash hit, Newhart which ran for eight years. He tried two more series that did not catch on and appeared in many mainstream American television programs including E.R., Desperate Housewives, and NCIS, and made appearances in major motion pictures. He finally won an Emmy Award in 2006 for his guest appearance on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory. Originally, he studied business management in college and, following military service in Korea in the 1950s, he worked in accounting and then as an advertising copywriter in Chicago. Prank phone calls with a friend led him to develop them as scenarios that became comedy bits picked up by a local disc-jockey. In the manner of a befuddled man trying to explain absurd things, he made his recording debut on the album The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart. The album was an immediate success and stayed on the UK Albums Chart for 35 weeks, peaking at number 2. It was named Album of the Year at the 1960 Grammy Awards and in 1998 Billboard ranked it at number 20 on a list of most popular albums of the previous 40 years, and the only comedy album so honored. His second 1960 album, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!, won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Comedy Performance and he was named Best New Artist. He was nominated for two more Grammy Awards - for Best Spoken Word Comedy Album for Button Down Concert (1997) and Best Spoken Word Album for I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This (2006). During his career as a stand-up comedian, Bob Newhart appeared on all the top American variety shows including The Dean Martin Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. His movie appearances include the 1962 war picture Hell Is for Heroes (1962) with Steve McQueen, the 1968 crime comedy Hot Millions with Peter Ustinov and Maggie Smith, war satire Catch-22 (1970) and The Rescuers (1977). However, it was his two TV series that made him a comedy icon. Bob Newhart died on July 18, 2024, at the age of 94.
