Bob Newhart has died at the age of 94. He was an actor and comedian who was best known for his roles in Elf and Legally Blonde.
Bob Newhart got his start as a comedian on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Soon after, he started acting in movies like Catch-22 and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
Before he played Papa Elf, he did voice work for Leonard the Polar Bear in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and was the lead in Legally Blonde 2.
The Hollywood Reporter says that Bob died Thursday morning. The reason he died has not been found.
The US Army called Newhart up.
Bob Newhart went to Roman Catholic schools in and around Chicago. He graduated from St. Ignatius College Prep in 1947 and St. Catherine of Siena Grammar School in Oak Park.
After that, he went to Loyola University Chicago and got a bachelor’s degree in business management in 1952.
After graduating from high school, Newhart was called up and sent to serve in the US Army. He was a personnel manager during the Korean War and was released in 1954.
He went to Loyola University Chicago School of Law for a short time but did not finish his degree. One of the reasons he left was because he was asked to do something unethical during an internship.
A look at Newhart
Look at Newhart at different times in his life.
Newhart was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on September 5, 1929.
His mother, Julia Pauline, was Irish and worked as a housewife. His father, George David Newhart, co-owned a plumbing supply business and had German and Irish roots.
Newhart had a grandmother who was from St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
He had three sisters when he was young.
Bob Newhart’s rise continued. He started his TV career with the short-lived NBC variety show The Bob Newhart Show. He became famous as Chicago psychologist Robert Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show.
After that, he played Vermont innkeeper Dick Loudon on Newhart.
He was in two short-lived sitcoms in the 1990s: Bob and George & Leo.
Catch-22, Cold Turkey, In & Out, and Elf are some of the movies that Newhart has been in.
He did the voice of Bernard in the Disney animated movies The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under as well.
Newhart won his first Primetime Emmy Award for his role as Professor Proton on The Big Bang Theory, which ran from 2013 to 2018.
People all over the world heard Bob Newhart’s album of comedic monologues, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, in 1960.
It was a big hit, going straight to number one on the Billboard pop album chart. It is still the 20th best-selling comedy album of all time.
Following it up with The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back! was also a big hit. In fact, both albums were at the top of the Billboard chart at the same time.