The actor, an icon of American humor, seen in the film Elf and more recently in the series The Big Bang Theory in the role of Professor Proton, has just passed away at the age of 94.
American actor Bob Newhart, a familiar face on the small screen, has just passed away at the age of 94, his agent, Jerry Digney, said in a statement. While the French public knows him best for his role as Professor Proton in the series The Big Bang Theory, Americans know Bob Newhart best for his comedy series, The Bob Newhart Show in the 1970s, Newhart in the 1980s and Bob in the early 1990s.
His humor is based on observation and psychology, as recalled VarietyBob Newhart left his mark on American television, his sketches revolutionized comedy.
“There was a shift, and I was a part of it,” Bob Newhart told Guy MacPherson of the Comedy Couch blog in 2006. “There was Mike and Elaine[Nichols & May]Shelley Berman, Mort Sahl, myself, Johnny Winters and Lenny Bruce. We weren’t doing ‘take my wife, please’ jokes. We weren’t doing ‘jokes’; we were doing little bits. So there was a shift in comedy. We didn’t get together and form a cabal and say ‘let’s change comedy,’ it was just our way of finding out what was funny in the world.”
Many film figures have paid tribute to him, including Judd Apatow, who said “Bob Newhart made the world a better place, for a very long time.” Mark Hamill praised his revolutionary stand-up and his two sitcoms that have become classics.
“Bob Newhart taught countless generations of comedians that you might be funny, smart, uncompromising and win on your own terms. This is an immeasurable loss,” host Conan O’Brien wrote.
American television icon
Born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1929, Bob Newhart started out as an accountant before joining the Army in the 1950s and then trying his hand at law. His acting career began on radio. Bob Newhart tried his hand at a few sketches there before being introduced to the president of Warner Bros. Records, who offered him a job performing in nightclubs.
His live album of monologues The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart became a huge success and earned him three Grammy Awards in 1961. The album earned him the number one spot on the record sales charts at the time, and, an unprecedented achievement for a stage comedian,
In the process, he launched the show The Bob Newhart Show on NBC, then an eponymous series in the 1970s where he played a psychologist from Chicago. His character established him as a legendary icon of American television, which also opened the doors to cinema, with roles in “In and Out” (1997) or “Elf” (2003).
Also a film actor, Bob Newhart starred in Hot Millions in 1968 alongside Peter Ustinov and Maggie Smith, Catch 22, or Cold Turkey. He also played Papa Elf in Jon Favreau’s film Elf, with Will Ferrell in 2003 and Horrible Bosses in 2011.
He has also appeared in several television series such as Desperate Housewives and ER.
Although he only appeared in 6 episodes of The Big Bang Theory as Arthur Jeffries, Professor Proton, the role earned him a Emmy Awards in 2013. He also has a cameo in three episodes of The Big Bang Theory spin-off, Young Sheldon.
