Legendary Comedian Bob Newhart Dead at 94 'After a Series of Short Illnesses'

Legendary comedian Bob Newhart has died at 94 years old , his publicist confirmed on Thursday, July 18.

The comedian, whose TV series The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart were huge hits throughout the '70s and '80s, passed away in Los Angeles, Calif., after a series of short illnesses.

Newhart started out as a stand-up comedian before he landed The Bob Newhart Show , which lasted for six seasons. He later went on to headline Newhart from 1982 to 1990 before appearing in Legally Blonde 2 , Elf and The Big Bang Theory .

The actor previously got candid about his legacy in 2020.

"I have a theory that when it's all over ... and you go up — [if] I've been led to believe to heaven — and there's a God and he says, 'What did you do?' [And] I say, 'I made people laugh,' [He will say,] 'Yeah, get in that real short line over there,'" he said.

That same year, Newhart spoke about how it was the 60th anniversary of his first comedy album, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart .

"Well, for one thing, it kept me from going back into accounting! [ Laughs ] I remember that I played a club after I made the album, but before it had been released, and I died every night. I mean, there wasn't even a cough — I would have welcomed a cough. So I figured the record might sell, I don't know, maybe 20,000 copies. That way, I could continue my stand-up career and maybe some people who heard the album would come to the nightclub," he told Yahoo! .

"Then I called friends of mine in Chicago and they asked, 'Bob, whatever happened to that comedy record you made?' So I called Warner Brothers and said, 'Hi, I'm Bob Newhart. I made a comedy record for you people in January.' And they said, 'Yeah, it's going crazy in Minneapolis!' Then it started going crazy everywhere. They were advertising when different cuts would be on the radio, like ' The Curse of the U.S.S. Codfish will be on at 3:30 in the afternoon,' and ' The Driving Instructor will be on at 7:15.' Then the Warner Brothers people said, 'We would like to have you go to the Grammys ,' which weren’t even televised then. And that's the year I won Best New Artist, Best Spoken Word and then Album of the Year. I was totally unprepared for that; I would hear my name announced, and go up and thank everybody. I ran out of things to say to people! It was quite a time," he continued of his success.

Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for!

Last year, the star's wife, Ginnie , whom he wed in 1963, died "after a long illness" in April.

Bob is survived by their four children, sons Robert and Timothy , and daughters Jennifer and Courtney , as well as 10 grandchildren.

The Hollywood Reporter reported on the death.