Television Comedy Icon Bob Newhart Dies At Age 94

Variety reports:

Bob Newhart, the genteel but sharply satirical comic whose TV series “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Newhart” were huge hits throughout the 1970s and ’80s, died Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 94. Newhart’s publicist Jerry Digney said he died after a series of short illnesses.

Before his TV success, Newhart’s comedy albums were wildly popular for their at-the-time new approach of observational humor. He ruled TV for the better part of two decades, first with “The Bob Newhart Show” as a befuddled Chicago psychologist and then on “Newhart” as an equally at-a-loss New England innkeeper.

His debut album, “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart,” was the first comedy album ever to hit the top of the Billboard charts, saving the then-struggling Warner Bros. Records in the process, and his first two albums held the Billboard Nos. 1 and 2 spots simultaneously, a feat unequaled until Guns N’ Roses did it with a pair of discs in 1991.

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Bob Newhart, the comedian and actor whose deadpan manner and laconic approach led to a series of best-selling comedy albums and starring roles in two long-running sitcoms, has died at age 94.

More on his life and legacy: https://t.co/GplP603Q4E pic.twitter.com/BKU1zgYNbH

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