Bill Cobbs, a prolific and wise character actor, dies at the age of 90

NEW YORK (AP) – Bill Cobbs, the veteran character actor who became ubiquitous and wise on screen as an older man, has died. He was 90 years old.

Cobbs died Tuesday at his home in California’s Inland Empire, surrounded by family and friends, said his spokesman Chuck I. Jones. The probable cause of death is natural causes, Jones said.

A Cleveland native, Cobbs has starred in such movies as “The Hudsucker Proxy,” “The Bodyguard” and “Night at the Museum.” He first appeared on the big screen in a transient cameo in 1974’s “The Taking of Pelham.” One, two, three. He became a lifelong actor, with some 200 film and television credits to his name. The lion’s share of those got here in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, when filmmakers and TV producers repeatedly turned to him to lend a wizened, worn soul to small but crucial roles.

Cobbs has appeared on television shows including “The Sopranos,” “Presidential Poker,” “Sesame Street” and “Good Times.” He was Whitney Houston’s manager in “Bodyguard” (1992), a mystical watchmaker in the Coen Brothers’ “Hudsucker Proxy” (1994) and a doctor in John Sayles’ “Sunshine State” (2002). He played a coach in “Air Bud” (1997), a security guard in “Night at the Museum” (2006) and a father in “The Gregory Hines Show.”

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Cobbs rarely had roles that stood out and won awards. Instead, Cobbs was a familiar and memorable presence who left an impression on viewers regardless of his screen time. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding limited performance in a daytime series for “Dino Dana” in 2020.

Wendell Pierce, who starred alongside Cobbs in “I’ll Fly Away” and “The Gregory Hines Show,” remembered Cobbs as “a father figure, a griot, an iconic artist for whom, given the way he conducted his acting life, – wrote X on the social media platform.

Wilbert Francisco Cobbs, born June 16, 1934, served eight years in the U.S. Air Force after graduating from Cleveland High School. In his post-service years, Cobbs sold cars. One day, a client asked him if he would really like to act in a play. Cobbs first appeared on stage in 1969. He began acting in theater in Cleveland and later moved to New York, where he joined the Negro Ensemble Company, playing alongside Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.

Cobbs later admitted that acting was a way for him to specific the human condition, especially during the Civil Rights Movement in the late Sixties.

“To be an artist, you have to have a sense of giving,” Cobbs said in a 2004 interview. “Art is kind of a prayer, isn’t it? We react to what we see around us, what we feel, and how things affect us mentally and spiritually.”