Bob Newhart Dies; Comedy Legend Was 94

Terribly sad news from the world of television today, as comedy legend Bob Newhart has passed away at the age of 94.

It’s impossible to overstate the impact of the accountant-turned-comic, who influenced generations of comedians with his wry observations and deadpan delivery.

After gaining fame with his 1960 standup album The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, Newhart racked up scores of acting credits over the course of his seven decades in the industry.

LOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 05: Actor Bob Newhart arrives at the Paley Center for Media and TV Land salute of — (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)

These included not one but three eponymous sitcoms: The Bob Newhart Show (1972-1978) Newhart (1982-1990), and Bob (1992-1993), all of which aired on CBS.

The middle series famously concluded with one of the greatest meta-jokes in TV history, as Newhart’s character awoke next to Suzanne Pleshette — who played his wife on The Bob Newhart Show — and realized that the events of the later show had all been a dream.

The gag was emblematic of Newhart’s style, which was at once comfortingly conventional and boldly experimental, an approach that enabled him to appeal to the hippies of the ’60s and ’70s as well as their parents.

Later generations grew to love Newhart as well, thanks in no small part to his appearance in the Will Ferell Christmas classic Elf and his guest work on shows like The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory.

WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 29: Actor Bob Newhart arrives at the 5th Annual Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize presentation ceremony October 29, 2002 in Washington D.C. Newhart was the recipient of the 5th Annual Mark Twain Prize. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) — (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1929, Newhart seemed destined for a conventional life — and in many ways, he would always embody the traditional Midwestern values with which he was raised:

The father of four and military veteran was married to wife Virginia Quinn from 1963 until her passing last year.

But in his thirties, Newhart left the accounting world behind in order to embark on one of the most successful comedy careers of all time.

His respectably staid demeanor belied a man with an astonishingly acerbic wit and a hilariously derisive view of the world around him.

American comedian and actor Bob Newhart pictured on stage performing in the Royal Variety Performance at the Palladium in London on 2nd November 1964. (Photo by Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) — (Photo by Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

“I tend to find humor in the macabre. I would say 85 percent of me is what you see on the show. And the other 15 percent is a very sick man with a very deranged mind,” Newhart told Los Angeles magazine in 1990 (via The Hollywood Reporter).

Casual fans who only knew the soft-spoken star from his sitcoms might have been surprised by that self-assessment.

But the Newhart diehards — the ones who memorized his razor-sharp monologues and collected his revered albums from the ’60s — knew that such sharp observations can only originate in a mind that’s deftly aware of the foibles and frailties that make the human tragedy so comedic.

In the days to come, many classic Newhart bits will surely be shared across the social media landscape.