HR0456 104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0456 LRB104 15243 MST 28393 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Bob Newhart was one of America's most beloved and celebrated comedians, achieving overnight fame and meteoric success with the 1960 release of his breakthrough comedy album, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart; and

WHEREAS, Bob Newhart was a native of Chicago's Austin community, spending the first 30 years of his life as an apartment dweller living near Columbus Park; he was a graduate of Chicago's St. Ignatius High School and Loyola University and a generous donor to his alma maters, endowing a theater at Loyola in his family's name; and

WHEREAS, Bob Newhart was a star performer at Chicago's famed Mr. Kelly's nightclub, and his debut album was the first, and remains the only, comedy album to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, which beat extraordinarily tough competition, including records by some of the 20th century's most celebrated recording artists such as Frank Sinatra and Harry Belafonte; and

WHEREAS, Bob Newhart was arguably the most successful sitcom actor in television history, starring in two long-running, highly-rated programs that aired for an extraordinary combined 14 years, as well as three other programs; and

WHEREAS, Bob Newhart's acclaimed 1970s show, The Bob Newhart Show, was the first major sitcom set in Chicago and often referenced area locations and institutions and greatly enhanced the city's profile nationally during a time when cities, and Chicago in particular, were struggling; and

WHEREAS, Bob Newhart was widely considered a genuinely nice guy in the often cutthroat world of show business and always projected a Midwest nice sensibility that harkened back to his Chicago roots; and

WHEREAS, Bob Newhart was married for 60 years to his wife, Ginnie, who preceded him in death, and was the father of four children; and

WHEREAS, Bob Newhart was the recipient of numerous prestigious entertainment awards, including an Emmy Award and the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor; and

WHEREAS, Bob Newhart was one of Chicago's biggest boosters in Hollywood and one of the most prominent fans of the Chicago Cubs; and

WHEREAS, Bob Newhart's home on The Bob Newhart Show, the Thorndale Beach South condominium building at 5901 N. Sheridan Road in Edgewater, is still widely recognized from its prominence in the program; and

WHEREAS, On September 5, 2025, Bob Newhart will be honored by the City of Chicago with the naming of 5900 to 6000 N Sheridan Road as an honorary "Bob Newhart Way" in recognition of his contributions to comedy and television; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we celebrate the life and legacy of Bob Newhart, one of America's most beloved and celebrated comedians.