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Since the classes were at
night, his mother took Bob along with Jack and her,
probably because she knew that he
was already in love with show business, and this was
a taste of the "real thing." The class used live
music and unbelievably, Bob knew many of the songs
that were being played, and still being little more
than a tot, he spontaneously began singing. Oliver
McCool, the tap teacher was so amused, that he made
him stand up in the middle of the class and sing for
everybody. He obviously must have had something
because several of the professionals there
recommended singing and acting coaches to his
mother and told her that he definitely had a future
in the business. He immediately began studying, and
his
teachers were also impressed and recommended him to
several agents, and that’s how it all began.
Bob
officially began his professional
career at the age of six when he appeared in an
episode of The Naked City, a New York-based weekly
television series. The following year, he made his professional stage debut at the age of
seven in John
Patrick’s Juniper and the Pagans, which was produced
by David Merrick and starred David Wayne. His
Broadway debut took place the following
year in the Pulitzer Prize and Drama Critic Circle
Award winning play, All the Way Home, with Colleen
Dewhurst, Lillian Gish, and Arthur Hill. After that,
he appeared opposite Mike Nichols in A Matter of
Position, which was written by Elaine May.
During the mid-1960s, Bob made numerous
television appearances on such programs as Car 54,
The Defenders, Hullabaloo, and The
Steve Lawrence Show. His stage appearances during this period
included Oliver, starring Jules Munshin, and
The King and I, starring Darren McGavin and Rise Stevens,
which was produced by the legendary composer
Richard Rodgers and was the first musical production
at the New York State Theatre of the then recently
completed Lincoln Center complex. Following that,
he
appeared with Judy Garland and her children, Lorna
and Joey, in a special performance at the Felt Forum
at Madison Square Garden.
After graduating from high school, he
went into a four-year period of semi-retirement, but
only semi. He did make several appearances doing club
dates with a childhood friend by the name of Steve
Chall. They did a better than average singing and
variety act but never got to play the big rooms.
During the daytime, he was an undergraduate at Hunter
College where he received his B. A. in Psychology. Though
he never became a therapist, the study of psychology
really helped him improve his acting by allowing him
to better understand the feelings and emotions that
motivated all different sorts of characters.
After graduating from Hunter College,
he resumed his full-time career appearing
opposite James Rado in Rainbow (the sequel to
Hair). He also appeared as Chico Marx in
Minnie's Boys,
Clark in When You Comin' Back Red Ryder ( with the
Barrow Group), Gino in A Day in Hollywood/A Night
in the Ukraine, Waldgrave in The Nerd,
the Hunter in Peter and the Wolf, Bobo in
Coulda Woulda Shoulda,
and he appeared as six separate characters in the Off
Broadway musical, Jayson.
Regionally, he has appeared in the
dual roles of Ted Snyder, the partner of Irving
Berlin in the music publishing business, and Alfred
Ernst, the conductor of the St. Louis Symphony, in
the Cleveland Playhouse production of The Tin Pan
Alley Rag, which was directed and choreographed by
two-time Tony Award Nominee, Lynn Taylor-Corbett. He
has also appeared as Sosia in Olympus on my
Mind
at the Florida Studio Theatre, the dual roles of the
Captain & Hennessy in Dames at Sea, and
as Val in Laughter on the 23rd Floor. He also worked with Gabe Kaplan
and Misty Rowe in a production of Groucho: A Life
in Review, where he once again played the role of Chico
Marx. One of his most gratifying roles was as Horace
Goldin, a Jewish magician from the 1920s and 30s in
the musical The Amazing Goldin.
In 2011 he created and performed his
one man show, 50 Years in the Business, which is a
musical and variety memoir based on his lifelong
career in show business.
His relationship with
the Folksbiene
Yiddish Theatre started in 2009 when he played
several roles in the play, Shlemiel The First, a production
which they co-produced with Montclair State
University, where the show was presented. Bob reprised
his roles in the 2011 production of Shlemiel when it
was presented at The Skirball Theatre in New York
City. In 2012 he appeared in the Folksbiene
production of The Golden Land, which was nominated
for a Drama Desk Award.
On television, you may have seen him
in a leading role on NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries, where
he played a Hasidic rabbi wanted for international
bank fraud. Also, he has been featured on such shows
as Saturday Night Live, The Late Show With
David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, One
Life to Live, The Guiding Light, Mike
Hammer, and many others. He has also been featured twice on NBC’s hit series
Law & Order. In addition Bob played the part of a
sleazy attorney in an episode of Law &
Order: Criminal Intent. On film he can be seen tap
dancing in When Harry Met Sally, playing a Balloon
Captain in Just for the Time Being, and his voice has
been heard looping for other characters in such
films as Get Shorty, For Love or Money,
Life With Mikey, and Black and White in
Color.
Besides that he has worked numerous
times doing singing and speaking recordings, some of
which incorporated his
talents in the area of
character voices dialects and impressions. Many of
these recordings were done for and with the late Joe
Raposo, who was a very gifted and prolific composer
and was one of the original creators of Sesame
Street.
Bob is
also a playwright. His first produced effort was in
the Autumn of 1983 and was entitled Stop Time.
It was presented Off-Broadway at PSW Studios.
Besides writing the play, he acted in it in a
co-starring role along with his lovely and talented
wife, Marilyn Spanier, who besides being an actress
is an author, inventor, and certified hypnotist.
They have been married for over thirty years. His
second play, Shivah (now entitled The
Perfect Egg Cream) was presented in the Fall of
1998 at the Mazer Theatre at the Educational
Alliance and also featured his wife, Marilyn Spanier.
In addition, Bob has had successful staged readings
performed of several plays, and he has written audio
scripts for children’s recordings. Bob also has
written a horror novel, Reflection of Evil,
which is currently available at Barnes & Noble in
print and online. Bob is also a proud member of the
Project Rushmore Theatre Company
Sh. E. from Bob Ader. |
