Roberto Gómez Bolaños, known as Chespirito, was born in Mexico City. His mother, Elsa Bolaños was a first cousin once removed of the President of Mexico from 1964 to 1970, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. He had an older brother, Francisco (1926–2010), a younger brother, Horacio Gómez Bolaños, who portrayed the character Godínez in El Chavo del Ocho, and an even older half brother, product of one of his father’s liaisons with another woman.

Before becoming an actor, Gómez was an amateur boxer. He studied engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), but he did not graduate, as he admitted to having a misconception of what engineering actually did. Before he became famous, he wrote a number of plays, contributed dialogue to Mexican film and television scripts, and secured some character-acting work. His stage name, “Chespirito”, meaning “little Shakespeare”, was given to him by a producer during his first years as a writer and was concocted from the Spanish phonetic pronunciation of William Shakespeare — “Chespir” — combined with “ito,” a diminutive commonly used in Spanish.

Chespirito was discovered as an actor while waiting in line to apply for a job as a writer; soon he began writing and starring in his children’s comedy shows. Chespirito’s first show was Los Supergenios de la Mesa Cuadrada, a sketch comedy show that premiered in 1968; the show also starred Ramón Valdés, María Antonieta de las Nieves, and Rubén Aguirre. Los Supergenios was later renamed Chespirito y la Mesa Cuadrada and later Chespirito. The characters El Chavo, El Chapulín Colorado, and Dr. Chapatín were introduced on this show (1972, 1970 and 1968 respectively).

Chespirito has been described as one of the most recognized Mexican comedians of the 20th century as well as being well known and honored in all of Latin America. He has been honored for his creative writing, characters, comedic pick-up lines, and for his clean humor style. His television shows were broadcast throughout the world and have been translated into over 50 languages.