Bob Newhart Spoke Out About His Loss After His Wife Of 60 Years Passed Away

Feb 07, 2024

Bob Newhart is an American actor and comedian 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.

At 94, Newhart still has not retired from show business. His latest appearance was on the series “Young Sheldon” in 2020, reprising his role as Professor Proton. 

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 Bill Quinn’s daughter. They shared four children, Robert, Timothy, Jennifer, and Courtney, as well as ten grandchildren. They were Roman Catholic and passed those values onto their family. Read on to learn more about Newhart and his wife’s passing. 

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, there 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.”

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: 

“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: 

“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. In a post from Bob’s official Twitter/X account, they issued an announcement revealing Ginnie’s passing. 

“We lost our beloved Ginnie Quinn Newhart - Wife, Mother and Grandmother on April 23rd, 2023 after a long battle with illness. She was our rock and we miss her terribly. - The Newhart Family,” the tweet read. 

Fans and other celebrities sent their condolences to the family. Among them was Ben Stiller, who said, “Sending love to all the Newharts. 💙”

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Newhart. Wishing you and your family my deepest condolences and healing 🙏🏼🕊,” a fan wrote, while another reminded, “I’m sorry for your loss. The good thing about complete surrender to grief is you can finally shed some of those tears that you’ve been holding back for such a long while. Remembering the love that is lost is an honor to the dead. Being able to grieve is a privilege. Enjoy it.” 

In an interview with Closer Weekly in 2019, Newhart confessed that he has regrets in life, among them not deciding to marry his wife sooner. 

“If I could’ve afforded it, I would’ve gotten married earlier. When my first record came out and hit number one, I didn’t really have anyone to share it with. It would’ve been great if Ginny and I could’ve shared that, but I couldn’t afford to get married,” he explained. 

When asked how he knew if Ginnie was the one, the actor had this to say: “Yeah, she was everything. We had the same values, and we enjoyed being with each other. She had a great sense of humor, so she had all the things I was looking for.”

Are you a fan of Bob Newhart? What can you say about his love for his wife? Let us know, and pass this on to your family, friends, and other loved ones out there!