By Ron Wynn
The entertainment world has been paying tribute the past few days to Bill Cobbs, one of America’s premier character actors, who passed last Tuesday at 90. Cobbs appeared in more than 200 films and/or television shows as well as many plays over a career that dated back to 1969. A Cleveland native, he initially worked in that city’s theatrical circuit before moving to New York. There he joined the Negro Ensemble Company, acting alongside Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.
His first on-screen role came in the original version of “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” in 1974. Other film appearances included “The Hudsucker Proxy,” “The Bodyguard” “Sunshine State,” “Air Bud” and “Night at the Museum.” The television roles were also numerous, among them “The Sopranos,” “The West Wing,” “Sesame Street,” “The Gregory Hines Show” and “Good Times.” He won a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding limited performance in a daytime program for the series “Dino Dana” in 2020.
Wendell Pierce, who acted alongside Cobbs in “I’ll Fly Away” and “The Gregory Hines Show,” remembered Cobbs as “a father figure, a griot, an iconic artist that mentored me by the way he led his life as an actor,” he wrote on the social media platform X.
Additional tributes and ceremonies were being planned for Cobbs at press time.
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