Born November 20, 1942 in Los Angeles, California, Bob is the son of actress Thelma Leeds and radio comedian Harry "Parkyakarkus" Einstein. Bob's older brother, Clifford, is an advertising executive, and his younger brother, Albert (yes, his father named him Albert Einstein!) is better known as Albert Brooks. According to interviews with both Bob and Albert, all three kids in the family were in competition to make the rest of the family laugh.

One of Bob's earliest jobs was writing for THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR, for which he and the other writers (including Rob Reiner and Steve Martin) earned an Emmy. He also created the character of "Officer Judy" on the show, as well as many others. After CBS pulled the show off the air, Bob continued to make guest appearances on television, and was seen regularly on THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW, THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JOHNNY CARSON and LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, among many others.

By the start of the 1970s, Bob's career as a writer and producer was in full swing, with credits including THE SONNY AND CHER COMEDY HOUR, THE REDD FOXX COMEDY HOUR, and VAN DYKE AND COMPANY (for which he won his second Emmy). Just for fun, Bob would occasionally appear on these shows as a performer. His success in television continued into the 1980s with BIZARRE (which starred John Byner), and SUPER DAVE, for which he won a CableACE award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series.
 
Bob's film appearances have been as eclectic as the rest of his career. In 1972, he had a small role in GET TO KNOW YOUR RABBIT (with Tom Smothers), and, later that year, made his film debut as a writer/director with ANOTHER NICE MESS, which starred Rich Little, and was produced by Tom Smothers. In 1981, he was seen in brother Albert Brooks' film MODERN ROMANCE, which also featured performances by his mother, and his brother Clifford. Bob also appeared in Harry Shearer's film TEDDY BEARS' PICNIC and was seen as himself in the documentary SMOTHERED: THE CENSORSHIP STRUGGLES OF THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR. Most recently, Bob appeared as FBI agent Robert Caldwell in OCEAN'S 13 (with George Clooney and Brad Pitt).

In the world of television, Bob's best known character is Super Dave Osborne, the greatest daredevil superstar entertainer of all time! Super Dave, first seen on TV in the early 1970s, gained greater popularity on BIZARRE, which ran on Showtime from 1980-1985. From there, Bob spun off the character into SUPER DAVE, SUPER DAVE: DAREDEVIL FOR HIRE (an animated series), SUPER DAVE'S VEGAS SPECTACULAR, and his own feature film THE EXTREME ADVENTURES OF SUPER DAVE. In addition to ongoing appearances as Super Dave on JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE, Bob has a busy career as a character actor as well, with a list of TV credits including CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, and CRANK YANKERS.