Newhart was born on September 5, 1929 at West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park, Illinois. His parents were George David Newhart (1899-1986), a part-owner of a plumbing and heating-supply business, and Julia Pauline (nee Burns; 1901-1991), a housewife. His mother was of Irish descent and his father was of English, Irish, and German ancestry. One of his grandmothers was from St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
Personal comedic style
Newhart is known for his deadpan delivery and a slight stammer which he incorporated early on into the persona around which he built a successful career. On his TV shows, although he got his share of funny lines, he worked often in the Jack Benny tradition of being the "straight man" while the sometimes rather bizarre cast members surrounding him got the laughs. Newhart, however, has stated that "I was not influenced by Jack Benny" in terms of his style or persona, and cites George Gobel and the comedy team of Bob and Ray as his initial writing and performance inspirations.  Several of his routines involve hearing one-half of a conversation as he speaks to someone over the phone. In a bit called "King Kong", a rookie security guard at the Empire State Building seeks guidance as to how to deal with an ape that is "between 18 and 19 stories high, depending on whether there's a 13th floor or not." He assures his boss he has looked in the guards' manual "under 'ape' and 'ape's toes'." Other famous routines include "The Driving Instructor", "The Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline (and Storm Door Company)", "Introducing Tobacco to Civilization", "Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue", "Defusing a Bomb" (in which an uneasy police chief tries to walk a new and nervous patrolman through defusing a live shell discovered on a beach), "The Retirement Party", "Ledge Psychology", "The Krushchev Landing Rehearsal", and "A Friend With a Dog."  In a 2012 podcast interview with Marc Maron, comedian Shelley Berman accused Newhart of plagiarizing his improvisational telephone routine style.  However, in interviews both years before and after Berman's comments, Newhart has never taken credit for originating the telephone concept, which he has noted was done earlier by Berman and -- predating Berman -- Nichols and May, George Jessel (in his well-known sketch "Hello Mama"), and in the 1913 recording "Cohen on the Telephone". The technique would later also be used by Lily Tomlin, Ellen DeGeneres, and many others.

Q: What was his style focused on?
A: he worked often in the Jack Benny tradition of being the "straight man"
Was he influenced by anything?
cites George Gobel and the comedy team of Bob and Ray as his initial writing and performance inspirations.
cites George Gobel and the comedy team of Bob and Ray as his initial writing and performance inspirations.