Bobby was raised in Flatbush, Brooklyn. By the time he was four and a half, he could act, tap dance and play the Saxophone. He made his stage debut in 1930 and film debut at Warner Bros./Vitaphone in 1931. He also reportedly had a bit part in the 1934 Eddie Cantor film, "Kid Millions". He then appeared on Broadway in "Dead End", which opened on October 28, 1935. He left the show in mid-November 1936 to appear in the The Samuel Goldwyn Company film version of "Dead End". Warner Brothers studios signed the all of the Dead End Kids to contracts. At the peak of his career, Bobby made $1,500 a week, owned a $150,000 home in Beverly Hills and was the sole support of his mother, two brothers a sister and a niece. In 1940, Bobby returned to Universal to appear with several other Dead End Kids in The Little Tough Guys series. Later the same year, Monogram featured him in his first East Side Kids film, "Boys of the City". In 1943, Bobby was drafted. He served as a foot soldier in the 97th Infantry until 1945 with his only film appearance being the East Side Kid's "Bowery Champs" (1944), playing himself in a running gag. In 1946, Bobby appeared in the first Bowery Boys picture, "Live Wires". But, after eight films he left because he was forced to take a backseat to Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall. In March of that year, he married Lee, and in 1949, they had a son, Robert Jr. Bobby worked sporadically in film and television afterwards. He tried a nightclub act, then he found additional work as a bartender, door-to-door photograph salesperson and he later worked as an oil driller in Coalinga. In 1957, he and Lee divorced, and in 1958, he declared bankruptcy when he failed to pay alimony and child support. On August 25, 1965, Bobby collapsed at the home of a friend he had been living with. Already a heavy drinker, he was admitted to a Veterans Administration Hospital in Los Angeles for treatment for Cirrhosis of the liver.