Go with what you know. 

Born in Germany, 1879. His parents wanted to name him Abraham, but thought it sounded too Jewish so they kept the 'A'. and named him Albert. The myth he failed math as a child was around when he was alive. He said 'I never failed math'. His report cards and personal interests showed a strong ability with math. He struggled with foreign language and language in general. He didn't begin talking until he was 3-4, and would sputter to himself what he was about to say a few times before saying it. He moved around growing up, calling many countries home. He was internationally oriented, and was interested in international governments.

He graduated from Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich at the age of 26. He prefered a bohemian lifestyle and would drink coffee, debate philosophy, and smoke strong cigars at the local shops. In 1905 he has his annus mirabilis. He published 4 significant papers. There were no experiments or evidence, just theoretical ideas. For example, E=MC2. This idea proposed that the speed of light was constant in a vacuum, foundational to optics, astronomy, etc. This same idea is later applied to nuclear fusion, where a small amount of mass is converted into a large amount of energy. He was not well regarded academically at this time, but later received profound personal & academic success. He spent the next 10 years working towards his magnus opus, general relativity.

Imagine a bowling ball on a trampoline and ping pong ball is shot across . When it crosses over the BB, it dips. Next imagine the bowling ball is gone, but the trampoline remains the same shape. Another ping pong ball is shot across, and this time it does the same thing. The ping pong ball dips because a warp in space time, not because it's pulled by the BB itself.
Imagine a pair of scissors 100 light years across. If there is a 1 degree split, it will cause a huge gap at the other end. As physicists and astronomers made more accurate models of the universe they needed a way to account for the distortions they were observing. AE theory of general relativity solved these problems, and experimental data began to prove he was correct. GR is the current model of gravitation.

He fled Germany after the assassination of prominent Jews in the late 1930's. As he was leaving his apartment he said to his wife, 'Take a good look, we will never see it again', and that was the last time he would see Europe. He spent the remaining 20 years of his life at Princeton University. He became somewhat of an 'old coot' on a quixotic quest for a unified field theory. He had a high libido, and had many lovers. One of his sons graduated from UC Berkeley. The other spend his life in a 'assisted living facility'.

For more information check out Einstein, His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson.

This is my cat Cosmos! He is black like outer space.