Los Angeles, June 27. – (Adnkronos) – American actor Bill Cobbs, a character actor who had key roles in films such as ‘Mister Hula Hoop’, ‘The Sunshine Coast’ and ‘Night at the Museum’, has died at the age of 90. The death occurred from natural causes at his home in Riverside, California. The announcement of his disappearance was made by his family on social media and the news was confirmed by his agent Chuck I. Jones to various specialized newspapers.
Born Wilbert Francisco Cobbs, aka Bill, in Cleveland, Ohio, June 16, 1934, the actor excelled in both comedy and drama: he played Whitney Houston’s manager Devaney in ‘Bodyguard’ (1992), the older brother of Medgar Evers in ‘Ghosts from the Past’ (1996) by Rob Reiner, a jazz pianist in ‘Music Graffiti’ (1996) by Tom Hanks and the Master Tinsmith, builder of the Tin Woodman, in ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’ (2013) by Sam Raimi.
Bill Cobbs achieved great fame with Shawn Levy’s ‘Night at the Museum’ (2006), where he played Reginald, the guardian of the Museum of Natural History in New York, acting alongside Ben Stiller, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney and Robin Williams. Cobbs reprized the role in the third installment of the saga ‘Night at the Museum: The Pharaoh’s Secret’ (2014).
In Joel Coen’s ‘Mister Hula Hoop’ (1994), Cobbs played Moses, the mystical clock-man whose ability to stop time comes none too soon for Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins). He also played the wise coach who inserts a basketball-playing dog into the Timberwolves’ lineup in ‘Air Bud’ (1997). In John Sayles’ ‘The Sunshine Coast’ (2002), Cobbs provides a moral compass as a doctor struggling to save his Florida beachfront neighborhood from developers. Previously, the actor and director worked together in the 1984 sci-fi comedy ‘Brother from Another Planet’.
After graduating from East Tech High School in Cleveland, Cobbs served eight years in the US Air Force, where he experimented with stand-up comedy. He worked for IBM and sold cars before appearing on stage for the first time in 1969 in the anti-apartheid musical ‘Lost in the Stars’ at Karamu House in his hometown. He continued to act in the theater, also obtaining a role in ‘Six Characters in Search of an Author’ by Luigi Pirandello. In 1971 he joined the Negro Ensemble Company of New York, working with the likes of Ruby Dee, Adolph Caesar and Moses Gunn.
His big screen debut came in 1974 with John Sargent’s ‘The Subway Heist’. Cobbs’ film resume includes character roles in John Landis’ ‘Cotton Club’ (1983), Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Cotton Club’ (1984), Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Color of Money’ (1986) , John Badham’s ‘Together’ (1991), ‘New Jack City’ (1991), ‘Demolition Man’ (1993), ‘The Last Gift’ (2006), ‘The Funeral Party’ (2009), ‘ Zampa and the Magic of Christmas’ (2010), ‘Christmas in Palm Springs’ (2014).
According to the Imdb database, Cobbs has acted in 195 films and TV series. On television he has appeared in numerous episodes of popular series such as ‘A vigilante in New York’, ‘Spenser’, ‘Lawyers in Los Angeles’, ‘Bird’s Law’, ‘ER’, ‘Walker Texas Ranger ‘, ‘The Sopranos’, ‘Touched by an Angel’, ‘Sooner or Later I’ll Divorce!’ and ‘CSI: Crime Scene Investigation’.
