He was 94. He was one of the funniest people I ever heard.
Newhart and his comedy partner split in the 1950s and Newhart adopted the phone shtik, in which the audience heard him and filled in the other end of the conversation. The Empire State Building, Abe Lincoln’s speechwriter, the driving instructor…
Then there were the sitcoms.
It was so cool that his wife (Suzanne Pleshette) and best friend from college (Tom Poston) got married later.