Collections
Rise to Fame
Odenkirk wrote the 'living in a van down by the river' character that made Chris Farley a star at SNL. He wrote for the show starting in 1987, won an Emmy for it in 1989, and co-created Mr. Show with Bob and David with David Cross in the mid-90s, a cult HBO sketch comedy that ran four seasons. None of it made him a recognizable face. That changed in 2009, when a four-episode guest spot on Breaking Bad kept expanding into a recurring role and eventually a spinoff. Odenkirk made Saul Goodman impossible to lose.
In the Spotlight
Better Call Saul ran 2015 to 2022 and earned him six consecutive Emmy nominations for lead drama actor. He never won. In July 2021, mid-production on the final season, he collapsed on set with a heart attack. He credits two years of physical training for Nobody (an action film where he plays a suburban vigilante) with helping him survive: the conditioning built enough collateral circulation that CPR worked. He finished the show, Nobody topped the pandemic-era box office, and a sequel is in production. The career arc from comedy writer to dramatic lead took about 30 years.
Side Notes
His father, an alcoholic who left the family in the '70s, died in 1986. He's spoken about the effect of that absence. For most of the '80s and '90s, he was a TV writer (SNL, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Ben Stiller Show), not a performer. He's also partially color blind, which means the wardrobe department picked every outfit he wears on screen. That includes Saul Goodman's notoriously loud suits.