Actor Bob Newhart Is In His 90s & His Look Blew Us Away

Feb 25, 2022

Bob Newhart is an American actor and comedian who is known for his stammering and deadpan delivery style. Newhart first rose to widespread fame in 1960 when he released an album of comedic monologues called "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart." The album reached the top of the Billboard charts and is still the 20th-best-selling comedy album in history. The album's sequel, "The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!," was also a best seller, and the two records topped the chart simultaneously.

After his great success as a comedian, Newhart went into acting. The star portrayed Chicago psychologist Robert Hartley in "The Bob Newhart Show" during the 1970s. He then went on to star as Vermont innkeeper Dick Loudon in the series "Newhart" in the 1980s. The actor was also popular in films such as "Catch-22," "Elf," "The Librarian," and the TV show "The Librarians." Newhart was the voice of the mouse Bernard in "The Rescuers" and "The Rescuers Down Under." Beginning in 2013, he made his first appearance on "The Big Bang Theory" and won a Primetime Emmy Award for his performance that year as well.

Newhart was married to his late wife, Ginnie Quinn, from 1963 until her death in 2023. The couple met through Buddy Hackett, and Ginnie was the daughter of Bill Quinn. They shared four children: Robert, Timothy, Jennifer and Courtney, as well as 10 grandchildren. They were Roman Catholic and passed those values onto their family. 

Nowadays, Newhart is 94 years old and still has not retired from show business. His latest appearance was on the series "Young Sheldon" in 2020, reprising his role as Professor Proton. Keep reading to learn more about Newhart's career and to hear what he had to say about his beloved late wife, Ginnie.

Newhart is an exceptional comedian, and his love for the genre is hard to beat. "I fell in love with the sound of laughter 61 years ago," he said to Forbes in 2021. "It's a sound I wanted to keep hearing. It's one of the great sounds in the world, I'm serious. I think it's true. The mail I get, you become part of people's lives. ... It's just great to make people laugh."

The star views stand-up comedy as something that is owed to the public and believes that those who can do it should. "People who can do it, you kind of are responsible to keep doing it. If you can do it, there's kind of an obligation to keep doing it. If you can make people laugh, they're aren't that many people who can do it," Newhart explained.

The comedian reiterated that he loves stand-up, but the nature of traveling around the country performing was hard on his family. "I was really happy just doing stand up, but it's a tough life for marriage and if you have kids," he shared. "I was offered to do a sitcom and it would get me off the road and that was important to me at the time." 

Newhart continued: "When we were doing the show I still did stand up when we weren't in rehearsal or in production and even when we were doing the show I'd do the warm up for the audience, which was work. A lot of times the audience thinks, 'Okay, we just get here and we laugh and we leave.' This made them feel like they're part of it. I never gave up stand-up."

Newhart turned 90-years-old in 2019 and shared with Closer Weekly what that meant to him. "When I think of all the things that I never thought would happen to me, they could fill a book. Having a No. 1 record, two TV series, all the people I've met and making 90. I wouldn't have expected it. My dad died at 85, and my mother died at 94, so I guess I wound up with her genes," he said.

The actor had the opportunity to spend his milestone birthday in the spotlight but opted for family time instead. "I got some offers to appear in Chicago, which is where I'm originally from," he said. "Then I thought to myself, 'No, I want to be with my family on my 90th birthday.' So we're all getting together, and that's the way it should be."

Even after nearly 60 years together, Newhart revealed, at the time, that he and Ginnie still made each other laugh. He shared: "She brings me down to Earth if I get too full of myself. Several years ago, Ginny asked me to take out the recyclables. I was feeling full of myself, so I said, 'Do you think Angelina Jolie makes Brad Pitt take out the recyclables?' And she said, 'If you were Brad Pitt, I wouldn't ask you to take out the recyclables!'"

Newhart also said that Ginnie understood him as a fellow performer. He explained: "She was an extra in movies, so we know the other side of show business. We didn't go to all the A-list parties. That isn't the way we wanted to live. It looks glamorous, but when you're going to perform and you have to walk through the kitchen and somebody says, 'Don't step on that lettuce over there,' it brings you back down to Earth."

Sadly, Ginnie passed away on April 23, 2023, at the age of 82.

Are you a fan of Bob Newhart? Can you believe that he is still working at 94? Let us know, and be sure to pass this along to your friends and family.