Much like Buddy's extreme exuberance for anything Christmas, late comedy legend Bob Newhart had nothing but love for his role as Papa Elf in Elf.

Newhart, who died Thursday at his home in Los Angeles after a series of short illnesses at the age of 94, even told CNN in November, timed to the holiday classic's 20th anniversary, that "without question" the part "outranks, by far, any role I may have ever played."

“My agent sent me the script and I fell in love with it,” he said, also telling the outlet that he told his wife that the film was “going to be another Miracle on 34th Street, where people watch it every year.”

New Line/ Everett

That's strong praise coming from the star, whose career spanned 60 years and countless projects across standup, television, and film.

In Elf, Newhart plays the adoptive father to Will Ferrell's Buddy the Elf, who took him in as a baby and raised him as his own in the North Pole, even though Buddy was human and not an elf, like Papa. The 2003 film, which is directed by Jon Favreau, follows Buddy as he travels to New York to meet and attempt a relationship with his biological dad, who — gasp! — is a mainstay on the Naughty List.

Newhart wasn't wrong about his appraisal of the film. Upon its release, Elf became a major critical and commercial success, ultimately grossing $220 million worldwide, and eventually spawning a 2010 Broadway musical and a 2014 stop-motion animated television special. The film frequently appears on rankings of the top Christmas movies of all time.

And for Newhart, nothing has come close to Elf since. “In my opinion, there has not been anything like it in the interim,” he told CNN in November.

Newhart added, “People wanted to believe in it.… People need that charming, wonderful thing about the Christmas spirit and its way of powering the sleigh."

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Reps for Favreau and Ferrell didn't immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly's requests for additional comment Thursday.