Bob Newhart, the lovable but highly satirical comic whose TV series "The Bob Newhart Show" and "Newhart" were huge hits during the 1970s and '80s, died Thursday in Los Angeles at the age of 94.
Newhart's publicist Jerry Digney said he died after a series of brief illnesses.
Newhart was also known to younger audiences as Papa Elf in the 2003 Christmas classic "Elf" and recently appeared in three episodes of "Young Sheldon."
Before his television success, Newhart's comedy albums were extremely popular for their then-novel approach to observational humor. He hosted television for the better part of two decades, first on "The Bob Newhart Show" as a bewildered Chicago psychologist and then on "Newhart" as an equally lost New England innkeeper.
Both shows were huge successes for CBS and they ran for a total of 16 years between 1972 and 1990.
