Gale was born in University City, Missouri, the son of Maxine (née Kippel), an art dealer and violinist, and Mark R. Gale, an attorney. As a teen, he created his own comic books ("The Green Vomit") using spirit duplication, and also co-founded a popular comic book club in St. Louis. Later, he made his own amateur three-film series with his brother Charles Gale, parodies of the Republic Pictures Commando Cody serials (using the character name "Commando Cus"), the last two of which also in collaboration with his friend the late Richard Rosenberg. (Rosenberg had taken over the series with the third, Commando Cus vs. Kung Fu Killers ((1973)), in which Gale made a cameo appearance as the title character without his face-covering helmet, and was working on a fourth at the time of his death.)

Gale received a B.A. in Cinema from the University of Southern California in 1973, where he wrote fanzine reviews for classmate Mike Glyer's fanzine, and met classmate Zemeckis. As scriptwriters, the two have collaborated on films including 1941, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Used Cars, and Trespass, the last set in East St. Louis, Illinois near Gale's home town.

In 1985, both Gale and Zemeckis were nominated for an Academy Award in honor of their screenplay for Back to the Future.In 2002, Gale debuted as a feature-film director with Interstate 60. He had previously directed and wrote the 45-minute theatrical release An Interactive Movie.

He also wrote the novelization for his movie 1941 and helped develop the arcade game Tattoo Assassins.

Bob Gale has not worked in the film business since 2004.

Comic books

Gale has also written for comics, including Marvel Comics' Ant-Man's Big Christmas and DC Comics' Batman.

In 2001, he had a short run on Marvel Comics' Daredevil, writing issues #20-25 of Volume 2. Working with artists Phil Winslade and David Ross, they created the story arc "Playing to the Camera." Writer-painter David Mack contributed covers to the run.

Gale is currently one of the writers on Amazing Spider-Man. The title ships three times a month and features rotating writer/artist teams; thus far he has contributed to #546, #552-554, #558, #562-564 (2008).