Bob Einstein of Super Dave and “Curb” fame dies at 76
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/01/2019 (2835 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
LOS ANGELES – Bob Einstein, the veteran comedy writer and performer known for “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and his spoof daredevil character Super Dave Osborne, has died, according to his brother, filmmaker Albert Brooks. Einstein was 76.
Einstein will be “missed forever,” Brooks said in a post Wednesday on his verified Twitter account.
“R.I.P. My dear brother Bob Einstein. A great brother, father and husband. A brilliantly funny man,” tweeted Brooks, 71.
Details of Einstein’s death were not immediately available. Representatives for him and Brooks did not immediately respond to calls or emails.
Einstein was scheduled to be part of the 10th season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” but his health barred him from filming, HBO said.
On the HBO comedy, Einstein played annoying pal Marty Funkhouser to Larry David’s equally off-putting character. In a statement, David said he’d never seen an actor enjoy a role more than Einstein did playing Marty.
“It was an amazing, unforgettable experience knowing and working with him. There was no one like him, as he told us again and again,” David said Wednesday. “We’re all in a state of shock.”
Einstein played Super Dave, a stuntman far more ambitious than he was agile. The character appeared on comedy-variety specials and series, most recently “Super Dave’s Spike Tacular” in 2009.
He spent 12 years in Toronto during Super Dave’s heyday in the 1980s, appearing regularly on Jon Byner’s “Bizarre” Canadian sketch comedy series and later starring on his own talk show, “The Super Dave Osborne Show.”
Aside from being utter fiascos, Super Dave’s antics were known for their low-budget effects, often involving haphazard contraptions designed by stunt co-ordinator Fuji and featuring flimsy protective padding and harnesses made from “genuine Saskatchewan sealskin bindings.”
Stunts would invariably end with a stuffed dummy dressed as Super Dave being crushed, burned, buried, flung or worse.
In a 2008 interview with The Canadian Press, Einstein said he thought fondly on his time in Canada but admits there were painful moments, too. Literally.
“You can’t do everything I did for all those years and not sustain some injuries,” he said, recalling a motorcycle stunt in which he broke his heel.
Einstein won an Emmy for writing on the 1960s series “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” on which he also played opposite brothers Tom and Dick Smothers, and a second Emmy in 1976 for Dick Van Dyke’s “Van Dyke and Company” variety series.
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This story headline has been corrected to show the tweet was made Wednesday, not Thursday.
— With files from The Canadian Press
