 The former accountant won the 1961 Album of the Year Grammy over his fellow nominees Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte, and Frank Sinatra. Bob Newhart went on to have two sitcoms in which he portrayed mild-seeming men, the first a Chicago psychologist, the second a Vermont innkeeper, trying to maneuver in a world of colorful characters. And, of course, there's the world that introduced him to a new generation, Papa Elf in Elf.