Bob Newhart, American Comedy and Television Icon, Dies at 94

Comedian Bob Newhart, who made his mark on American television in the 1960s and 1970s and recently played the character of Professor Proton in the series The Big Bang Theoryhas died at the age of 94, his agent announced Thursday, July 18. Bob Newhart died at his home in Los Angeles after a series of health problems, Jerry Digney said in a statement.

Originally an accountant, Bob Newhart broke into comedy in 1960 by recording an album of monologues, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart. It earned him the number one spot on the record sales charts at the time and, an unprecedented feat for a stage comedian, the most prestigious awards in the music industry, with the Grammy Awards for best album and newcomer of the year.

Building on his success, the comedian launched the show The Bob Newhart Show on NBC, then an eponymous series in the 1970s where he plays a Chicago psychologist. His character establishes him as a legendary icon of American television, which also opens the doors to cinema, with roles in In and Out (1997) or Elf (2003). In the 2010s, he made several appearances as Professor Proton in The Big Bang Theorya series about physicists that has become one of the most watched in the world.

Many cinema figures have paid tribute to him, such as Judd Apatow, for whom Bob Newhart “made the world a better place for a very long time.” Comedian Mark Hamill praised a man who “made people laugh for a lifetime” with his “revolutionary” stand-up and his two sitcoms that have become “classics”.