Celebrity Nooz: Robbie Rist

Robbie Rist (Actor) - The Brady Bunch

Updated: 10/06/22

Name: Robbie Rist

Birth Name: Robert Anthony Rist

Born: April 4, 1964 in La Mirada, California, USA

Claim To Fame: Robbie Rist is an American actor best known for playing Cousin Oliver in The Brady Bunch.

Family Life: No info found.

Info: No background info found.

Trivia: As a child, Rist played Cousin Oliver in the final six episodes of The Brady Bunch.

The regular children cast members had all growing older, and his inclusion was intended to reintroduce a cute, younger child to the series.

The idea did backfire as most viewers disliked the Oliver character. This gave rise to the TV term "Cousin Oliver Syndrome", also known as "add-a-kid".

Both the character and Rist were subsequently omitted from later original-cast revivals of the series.

After The Brady Bunch, he starred as "Little John" in the Saturday Morning series Big John, Little John.

Rist played David, son of Ted Baxter (Ted Knight), on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

In 1980, Rist played "Dr. Zee" on Galactica 1980.

He also played "Booger" in a failed Revenge of the Nerds TV pilot.

In 1986, Rist had a notable supporting role as Milo in the action film, Iron Eagle which was a box-office hit despite being critically panned.

In 2005, was number 76 on VH1's The Greatest: 100 Greatest Kid Stars.

Rist is also known for voicing assorted characters in television shows, games and movies, including Stuffy, the overly-proud stuffed dragon in Doc McStuffins, Whiz in Kidd Video, Star in Balto, Maroda in Final Fantasy X, and Michelangelo in the films Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993), and Casey Jones (2011).

Produced a horror/comedy film, Stump The Band, directed by William Holmes and JoJo Hendrickson.

In 2013, he portrayed Robbie the Bus Driver in the camp horror film Sharknado.

Rist and director Anthony C. Ferrante provided the music for the Sharknado film, initially writing about six songs for the first film. Rist and Ferrante would provide music for the sequel Sharknado 2 as the band Quint, and perform its theme song "(The Ballad of) Sharknado".

Rist is also a musician and producer. He has performed as the lead singer, guitarist, bassist and/or drummer for several Los Angeles rock bands, including Wonderboy, The Andersons, Cockeyed Ghost, Nice Guy Eddie, and Steve Barton and the Oblivion Click.

Rist has also produced a number of records for bands, including Suzy & Los Quattro, Backline, Ginger Britt and the Mighty, Jeff Caudill, Steve Barton and the Oblivion Click, Nice Guy Eddie, Kingsizemaybe and The Mockers.

In 2019, Rist and Don Frankel's power-pop group Sundial Symphony recorded two of Paul Levinson's songs -- "Merri Goes Round" and "Looking for Sunsets (In the Early Morning)" -- which were released by Big Stir Records.

In October 2016 and April 2019, Rist was seen promoting The Brady Bunch television series on the MeTV television network.

Where Are They Now: Rist is still acting and doing voice over work for video games and various animated series. He is also part of the podcast called, The Spoon. Rist and co-hosts Chris Jackson and Thom Bowers, according to Apple Podcasts, "stir up silly discussions on serious topics (and vice versa)". Hey, that might be worth a listen!

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