Actor Bob Einstein, best known for his role on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiam as well as the wacky Super Dave Osborne character, has died, his brother Albert Brooks said on Wednesday.
R.I.P. My dear brother Bob Einstein. A great brother, father and husband. A brilliantly funny man. You will be missed forever.
— Albert Brooks (@AlbertBrooks) January 2, 2019
“R.I.P. My dear brother Bob Einstein. A great brother, father and husband. A brilliantly funny man. You will be missed forever,” the actor and comedian tweeted.
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Einstein, who had recently been diagnosed with cancer, was best known for the serious, surly and hilarious Marty Funkhouser on the Larry David-created Curb. He appeared in nearly two dozen episodes of the comedy series dating from 2004 to its most recent season.
Einstein made a name for himself as a writer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, for which he won his first Emmy, alongside Steve Martin. Einstein went on to earn Emmy nominations as a writer on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour in 1972 and 1974, as well as two more for writing on Dick Van Dyke’s mid-1970s series Van Dyke and Company. He won a second Emmy as a producer for the series in 1977.
Born Stewart Robert Einstein on Nov. 20, 1942 in Los Angeles, Einstein’s mom Thelma Leeds was an actress and his father, Harry Einstein (aka Parkyakarkus), was a comic, writer and actor.
Einstein was initially turned off from comedy when comics like Milton Berle told jokes at his father’s funeral in 1958. Instead of following in his father’s footsteps, he played college basketball at Chapman University, then pursued a career in advertising.
But after he did a TV performance on a local cable show for a friend, pretending to install the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he caught Tom Smothers’ attention. Smothers invited Einstein, 26 at the time, on set.
“I go over and now I’m sitting and watching rehearsals and my mind is burning and all of sudden out of nowhere I want this, a bee has stung me in the back, and I want this,” Einstein said of the life-changing situation.
Fans will remember Einstein for his Smothers Brothers character, Officer Judy, who famously gave Liberace a speeding ticket for playing the piano too fast in a 1969 episode.
“Tom Smothers made our life by giving us that,” Einstein said in 2017.
He appeared as Super Dave Osborne on numerous shows, like the sketch comedy show Bizarre from 1979-85, Super Dave Osborne from 1987-91 and most recently in 2009 on Super Dave’s SpikeTacular.
He was also a guest on numerous late-night and comedy shows like The Steve Allen Show, Late Night with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Hollywood Squares. He appeared twice on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and appeared on The Tonight Show with hosts Johnny Carson, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien.
Einstein is survived by Brooks and his wife Roberta Einstein, his wife of over 40 years; daughter Erin Einstein Dale; son-in-law Andrew Dale; grandchildren Ethan and Zoe; older bother, retired advertising executive Cliff Einstein.
