Robert John Odenkirk is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker best known for his role as Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad (2008–2013) and its spin-off Better Call Saul (2015–2022).
Early life
Odenkirk was born October 22, 1962 in Berwyn, Illinois, then raised in Naperville. He is the second oldest of seven siblings born to Walter Henry Odenkirk, who was employed in the printing business, and Barbara Mary (née Baier) Odenkirk (1936–2021), Catholics of German and Irish descent. His parents divorced in part due to Walter’s alcoholism, which influenced Bob’s decision to avoid alcohol as much as possible. Walter Odenkirk died of bone cancer in 1986. Odenkirk’s younger brother is comedy writer Bill Odenkirk. Bob had helped with Bill’s early career.
Odenkirk attended Naperville North High School and graduated at 16; he was “tired of high school”, and because he had enough credits, he was able to leave high school when he was still a junior. Because he was so young and thought he would be awkward at any college,he decided to attend the local College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. After a year, he went to Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, then transferred to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, “honing his sketch-writing and performance skills with live shows on both colleges’ radio stations”. He began his foray into comedy writing as a radio DJ for WIDB, the local non-broadcast college station at SIU. At WIDB he created a late-night (midnight to 4 am) radio comedy show called The Prime Time Special. After three years of college, Odenkirk was three credits short of graduating when he decided to try writing and improv in Chicago. He completed the credits at Columbia College Chicago and received his bachelor’s degree from SIU in 1984. First studying with Del Close, Odenkirk attended the Players Workshop where he met Robert Smigel, and they began a collaboration that would last for years and take Odenkirk to Saturday Night Live. He also performed at the Improv Olympic alongside future Saturday Night Live cast members Chris Farley and Tim Meadows.
Odenkirk would sharpen his stand-up and improv skills at Elmhurst’s now defunct Who’s on First comedy club, then part of The Steve and Leo Show.
Odenkirk visited Chicago’s Second City Theater at the age of fourteen. He said his strongest comedic influence was Monty Python’s Flying Circus, primarily due to its combination of cerebral humor and verbal slapstick, which Odenkirk characterized as “laugh-out-loud” humor. Other influences included radio personality Steve Dahl, SCTV, Steve Martin’s Let’s Get Small, Woody Allen, The Credibility Gap, and Bob and Ray.
Career
Better Call Saul earned Odenkirk five nominations for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. As a producer on Better Call Saul since its premiere, he has also received six nominations for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series. He is also known for the HBO sketch comedy series Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995–1998), which he co-created and co-starred in with fellow comic David Cross. In 2015, he and Cross reunited, along with the rest of the Mr. Show cast, for W/ Bob & David on Netflix.
Odenkirk wrote for television series Saturday Night Live (1987–1991) and The Ben Stiller Show (1992), winning Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 1989 and 1993. He also wrote for Late Night with Conan O’Brien (1993–1994) and acted in a recurring role as Agent Stevie Grant in The Larry Sanders Show (1993–1998). In the early 2000s, Odenkirk discovered the comedy duo Tim & Eric. He produced their television series Tom Goes to the Mayor (2004–2006) and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! (2007–2010). His feature directorial credits include the films Melvin Goes to Dinner (2003), Let’s Go to Prison (2006), and The Brothers Solomon (2007).
The success of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul led to acting work in high-profile projects such as Nebraska (2013), the first season of Fargo (2014), Steven Spielberg’s The Post (2017), Pixar’s Incredibles 2 (2018), Little Women (2019) and, as the lead, the action film Nobody (2021), which he also produced.
Personal life
In the early 1990s, Odenkirk was linked romantically to fellow comedian, actress, and writer Janeane Garofalo, who introduced him to Mr. Show with Bob and David co-creator David Cross. In 1997, Odenkirk married Naomi Yomtov, who was later the executive producer of W/ Bob and David.They have two children.
Discussing costume choices on Better Call Saul, Odenkirk stated he has a bit of color blindness, and leaves it to the costume department to select the right outfits for his roles.
On December 15, 2019, Odenkirk’s alma mater SIU awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Performing Arts.
On July 27, 2021, Odenkirk was hospitalized in Albuquerque after having what he described as a “small heart attack” on the set of the sixth season of Better Call Saul. Three days later, on July 30, Odenkirk reported that he would “be back soon”, and on September 8 he reported he had returned to work. In 2022, Odenkirk revealed that he had two stents placed in his coronary arteries shortly after the widow-maker heart attack due to arterial plaque build-up, which he had been diagnosed with earlier in 2018; he also said that his condition was more severe than had initially been understood, disclosing that his heart stopped and he required cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation to recover a pulse.
Net Worth
Bob Odenkirk is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, and producer who has a net worth of $16 million.
At the peak of “Breaking Bad” , the 5ft 11in. tall actor earned $100,000 per episode. When he began starring on and producing the spinoff “Better Call Saul”, he earned $150,000 per episode in the first season. As of this writing he earns $200,000 per episode, roughly $2 million per season.
As pertains to Real Estate, just like almost every other Actor, Odenkirk has one or two investments.
In 1998, Odenkirk and his wife purchased a property in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles for just over $675,000. The property is now listed for a selling price of $2.45 million.
In 2010, Bob and his wife ostensibly purchased a property in Bronson Canyon for $675,000. Because of the property’s modest nature, it seemed unlikely that they’d live in it.
In 2015, Bob Odenkirk upgraded to a 2,800 square foot home in Hollywood Hills. He and his wife dropped $3.3 million on the traditional Spanish-styled property.
