The son of radio comedian Harry "Parkyakarkus" Einstein and actress Thelma Leeds, and the older brother of Albert Brooks (who was famously born Albert Einstein, though none of the Einstein family were related to the Albert Einstein), Bob, who stood 6' 4" (193 cm), played center for the basketball teams at Beverly Hills High School and Chapman College (now University) in Southern California, before taking a job with an ad agency. He'd begun performing on local TV comedy shows in Los Angeles, using what would become his trademark approach of performing in character as a deadpan, Comically Serious figure, and Tommy Smothers happened to see one of his routines and hired Einstein for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, both as a writer and performer, with Einstein appearing as the Recurring Character of Officer Judy. After that, Einstein was busy as a Variety Show writer, producer and performer in The '70s. The character of Super Dave originated in this era in a series of one-off sketches stretched out over several shows.
In 1980, Einstein went to Canada to create and produce the Sketch Comedy series Bizarre, which also gave him a regular venue to perform Super Dave, and the character became popular enough that he got his own spinoff series, Super Dave, starting in 1987. After that series ended in 1991, the character got multiple spinoffs. First, Einstein voiced Super Dave in the short-lived animated series Super Dave: Daredevil at Large (1992–93). In 2000, he starred in the direct-to-DVD film The Extreme Adventures of Super Dave. After leaving Super Dave behind for a few years, he brought back the character for a final run in 2009, hosting and even booking an episode of TNA Impact!, and also making Super Dave's Spike Tacular, a four-episode limited series for Spike TV.
He still kept busy outside of playing Super Dave, with memorable roles as Larry Middleman on Arrested Development and Marty Funkhouser on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
He passed away on January 2, 2019 of cancer at the age of 76. He later became the subject of the Max documentary The Super Bob Einstein Movie, with friends, colleagues and relatives reminiscing about his life and career.
Credits
- The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
- Bizarre
- Super Dave
- Arrested Development
- Curb Your Enthusiasm
- Ocean's Thirteen
