Bill Daily

Bill Daily was an American actor and comedian.

He was best known for his television roles as Roger Healey on I Dream of Jeannie and Howard Borden on The Bob Newhart Show.

Following a stint in the Army during the Korean War, Daily began performing stand-up comedy. After graduating from the Goodman Theatre School, Daily worked for the NBC television station in Chicago, WMAQ, as an announcer and floor manager. He eventually became a staff director.

Daily appeared in guest roles on My Mother the Car, The Farmer's Daughter and Bewitched. Veteran sitcom writer Sidney Sheldon liked Daily's work and hired him for the role of astronaut Roger Healey on I Dream of Jeannie.

In 1972, two years after I Dream of Jeannie was canceled, Daily was back on television as commercial airline navigator and co-pilot Howard Borden on The Bob Newhart Show.  

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Daily reprised his I Dream of Jeannie role of Roger Healey in two made-for-TV reunion movies: I Dream of Jeannie... Fifteen Years Later (1985) and I Still Dream of Jeannie (1991). In 1990, he reunited with Bob Newhart as a new neighbor in the Newhart episode "Good Neighbor Sam.” The following year, he reprised the role of Howard Borden in The Bob Newhart Show: 19th Anniversary.

Although mostly retired by the late 1990s, Daily still did some live comedy and occasional television guest appearances into the 2000s.

Daily died September 4, 2018, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 91.