Ginnie Newhart, Bob Newhart’s wife of 60 years, dies at 82

Ginnie Newhart, who inspired the masterful ending to her husband Bob Newhart’s second namesake sitcom, has died at 82.

Newhart’s wife of 60 years died Sunday in Los Angeles after a long illness, the “Bob Newhart Show” star’s publicist Jerry Digney said Tuesday in a statement to The Times. Digney did not disclose further details about her illness.

“We lost our beloved Ginnie Quinn Newhart - Wife, Mother and Grandmother ... after a long battle with illness. She was our rock and we miss her terribly,” the family said Monday in a statement on Bob Newhart’s Twitter account.

Ginnie Newhart was born Virginia Lillian Quinn in New York. She was the daughter of veteran character actor Bill Quinn, who appeared in the classic film “The Birds,” the 1983 “Twilight Zone” movie and his son-in-law’s series, “The Bob Newhart Show.” She also appeared on the program multiple times.

“[My publicist] said, ‘Well, we need background dancers in the back of Gisele MacKenzie and whoever else.’ And the next thing I know, I’m on a flat, I’m moving and I’m not a dancer. But they had to pay me less,” she told PBS in 2005 for “Bob Newhart: Unbuttoned.” “I did a couple of those things where I was a dancer in the background, which, I was not a dancer.”

She and Bob were set up in 1962 on a blind date arranged by comedian Buddy Hackett, who predicted that the two would get married and name one of their kids after him. They did both, Bob said, sharing that they called one of their daughters “Buddy.”

The couple wed in 1963 and celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in January. Ginnie and the Emmy-winning comic credited humor to sustaining their union.

“Comedians are just fun to be with. They seem to have longevity in their marriages,” she told PBS.

“The marriages of comedians, no matter how stormy, seem to last a long time, and I attribute it to laughter,” the TV legend told Parade in 2022. “No matter how intense the argument you’re having, you can find a line, and then you both look at each other and start laughing. It’s over, you know? I think that sense of humor is very important to the longevity of a marriage.”

He added that all four of their children also “have great senses of humor.”

Ginnie stood by her husband throughout his career, including his early days recording his first stand-up album, which in 1961 made the Everyman comedian the first non-musician to win the Grammy for album of the year (“The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart”) and best new artist of 1960, as well as comedy performance — spoken word.

“The Big Bang Theory” and “Elf” star led an NBC variety series also called “The Bob Newhart Show” from 1961 to 1962 and its eponymous follow-up from 1972 to 1978. “Newhart” ran on CBS from 1982 to 1990 and its iconic callback to his first beloved sitcom was an idea provided by his wife, who came up with it at a Christmas party she attended with his first TV wife, Suzanne Pleshette. The series closer has repeatedly been ranked among the best TV finales of all time.

In the “Newhart” finale, Newhart’s character Dick Loudon, a Vermont innkeeper, wakes up in Chicago next to his “Newhart Show” wife Emily Hartley (Pleshette), realizing that his eight seasons of misadventures in the Green Mountain State had all been a dream.

“Ginny knew I was unhappy with CBS,” Newhart told Yahoo Entertainment in 2020. “She told me, ‘You know what the final show should be? You wake up in bed with Suzie and you describe this dream you had about owning an inn in Vermont.’ I said, ‘Honey, that’s a great idea!’ Suzanne was actually at the same party, and we told her about it when we saw her. She said, ‘I’ll be there in a New York minute.’

“I gave the idea to the writers, and they filled out the rest,” he added.

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Although Ginnie came up with the idea two seasons before the show ultimately went off the air, the writing team had worked on both a regular episode that would end the season and a finale that would end the series, he told The Times in 1990.

The Newharts were also close friends with Don Rickles and his wife, Barbara, a friendship Digney said was initiated and solidified by the comedians’ wives. Their families spent years together while Newhart and Rickles worked in Las Vegas, as well as family vacations, and the two comics would often share stories about their extensive travels together on late-night TV.

In addition to her husband, who is 93, Ginnie is survived by their four children — Rob, Tim, Jennifer and Courtney — and 10 grandchildren. A private funeral service will be held in the coming weeks, Digney said.