Hospitalized with gastro-intestinal bleeding in June 2000. Although he received a blood transfusion after the bleeding in his colon was stopped, no surgery was performed.
Hospitalized with pneumonia and respiratory problems in August 2001. A week after he left hospital on 4 September, Hope and his wife released a joint statement expressing their horror at the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
Hosted the Academy Awards in 1939, 1940, 1943, 1945 (alongside John Cromwell), 1946 (alongside James Stewart), 1953 (alongside Conrad Nagel), 1955 (alongside Thelma Ritter), 1958 (alongside James Stewart, David Niven, Jack Lemmon, Rosalind Russell and "Donald Duck"), 1959 (alongside Jerry Lewis, David Niven, Laurence Olivier, Mort Sahl and Tony Randall), 1960, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1975 (alongside Sammy Davis Jr., Shirley MacLaine and Frank Sinatra) and finally in 1978.
In 1969, he was worth in excess of $150 million, largely as a result of shrewd business and real estate investments.
In 1997, Congress named Hope an honorary U.S. veteran, citing his decades of entertaining troops around the world. He is the only person to receive that distinction.
In 1997, the U.S. Air Force honored Hope by naming a cargo plane "The Spirit of Bob Hope" after the legendary entertainer.
In 1999 he became the first to start the tradition of the official lighting of the Christmas Tree in Disneyland. Afterwards, he and wife Dolores Hope drove their own golf cart down Main Street, through Frontier Land to Club 33 for dinner.
In a mostly ad-libbed skit for a TV show, Hope joked with Jimmy Durante about the size of his own nose. Durante quipped "When it comes to noses, you're a retailer. I'm a wholesaler!"
In November of 1948, when President Harry S. Truman scored his upset presidential re-election victory, Hope sent him a one-word telegram: "Unpack". Truman was so amused by it he kept it in his desk in the Oval Office.
In the 1950s, a part-owner of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. His guest appearance in "I Love Lucy" (1951) centered around his attending a Yankees-Indians game at Yankee Stadium.
Inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1983.
Introduced two Oscar-winning songs: "Thanks for the Memory" from The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938) (Music: Ralph Rainger . Lyrics: Leo Robin) and "Buttons and Bows" from The Paleface (1948) (Music: Jay Livingston. Lyrics: Ray Evans).
On his wartime USO tours he had one ironclad rule that he insisted his fellow performers follow: under no circumstances were they allowed to cry when visiting wounded soldiers in military hospitals. This was often difficult given the amount of suffering they saw, but he told his performers that it was their duty to always smile and provide laughs and good cheer for the troops. According to Hope, he broke his own rule only once. While visiting an army hospital in Italy in 1943, he stopped at the bedside of a wounded soldier who had been in a coma for two months. The soldier suddenly opened his eyes and said, "Hey, Bob Hope! When did you get here?" He had to leave the hospital room to keep the troops from seeing his tears, but he returned a few hours later to present the soldier with his Purple Heart medal.
Once remarked the only place where he could walk unrecognized was in the People's Republic of China. But even then a Chinese man still recognized him from one of his movies from before the Chinese Revolution.
Pictured on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp issued 29 May 2009, Hope's 106th birthday. The two official first-day-of-issue postmarks for the stamp feature caricatures by cartoonist Al Hirschfeld.
Played his first big part in the Broadway version of "Roberta" in 1933.
Received 58 honorary degrees.
Retired from show business at the age of 93 after filming Bob Hope's Bag Full of Christmas Memories (1993) (TV).
Served as United Service Organizations, Inc. (USO) Entertainment Coordinator from 1941 - 2001. Retired his post at age 98 in favor of Wayne Newton.
Spent his 99th birthday--29 May 2002--at home in Toluca Lake, CA. Wife Dolores Hope's 93rd birthday was just two days before. Los Angeles National Cemetery dedicated veterans' chapel in his name to salute his lifetime of service entertaining U.S. troops.