He was the son of Jacob Stolz, a conductor and music teacher; and Ida Bondy, a concert pianist. He gave his first public piano recital at the age of 7 with Johannes Brahms, a family friend, in the audience. Later he studied under Fuchs at the Wien Conservatory and with Humperdinck in Berlin. A meeting with Johann Strauss in 1899 resulted in his turning his attention to composition of light music and operetta. His first operetta was "Studentenulke" in 1899. In 1907 Robert Stolz became conductor at the Theater an der Wien, where he conducted leading operettas of his time, but his first great success came with the publication of his song "Servus du!" in 1911, which was followed by many other popular songs. In 1940 he went to the USA where he composed music for Hollywood films. His film scores were twice nominated for Academy Awards. In 1946 he returned to Wien where he wrote music for the Ice Revue every year between 1952 to 1971. He was an avid stamp collector and wrote a "Philatelic Waltz" in honor of stamp collectors everywhere.