Bill Cobbs

Wilbert Francisco "Bill" Cobbs (16 June 1934—June 25, 2024) was an American actor known for his roles in The Hitter (1979), The Brother from Another Planet (1984), I'll Fly Away (1991–1993, TV series), and The Michael Richards Show (2000, TV series). In 2020, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Performance in a Daytime Program for the series Dino Dana.

Cobbs was born on June 16, 1934, in Cleveland, Ohio. His mother was a domestic worker and his father worked in construction. He is the second cousin of James Baskett.

Cobbs began his career as a radar technician in the U.S. Air Force. He left the U.S. Air Force after 8 years and then worked in office products at IBM and as a car salesman in Cleveland, Ohio. He got his start in acting in Cleveland at the African American Performing Arts Center and Karamu House Theatre. At Karamu Theater, he starred in Purlie Victorious, a three-act comedic stage play written by actor Ossie Davis.

In 1970, at age 36, he moved to New York to seek a career in acting. He supported himself by driving a cab, repairing office equipment, selling toys, and performing odd jobs. His first professional acting role was in Ride a Black Horse at the Negro Ensemble Company (41st St, New York). After that, he appeared in small theater productions, including the Eugene O'Neill Theatre (49th Street, New York).

Cobbs was in Vegetable Soup (1976), a New York public television educational series, and he made his feature film debut in 1974 in Joseph Sargent's thriller The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, starring Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, and Martin Balsam.

Cobbs had an extensive film career and was a regular on many television programs, including The Michael Richards Show, The Outer Limits, I'll Fly Away, Yes, Dear, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Others, JAG, The Drew Carey Show, October Road, One Tree Hill, and Star Trek: Enterprise (as Dr. Emory Erickson, inventor of the Transporter.) He had a recurring role as "George," a blind grief-support-group member, in the TV series, Go On, which premiered in 2012.

In 2006, Cobbs played a supporting role in Night at the Museum as "Reginald," a security guard on the verge of retirement. The character also served as an antagonist to the story. He played basketball coach and retired basketball player "Arthur Chaney" in Disney's Air Bud and Charles Evers, the older brother of Medgar Evers (played by James Pickens Jr.), in Rob Reiner's Ghosts of Mississippi.

He had a role in the Coen Brothers' The Hudsucker Proxy and played the fictional jazz pianist "Del Paxton" in Tom Hanks' That Thing You Do. He had a brief appearance in the 2010 film The Search for Santa Paws.

In 2013, Cobbs co-starred in Oz the Great and Powerful, and in late 2014 reprised his role of "Reginald" in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. He recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's Hip-Hop Literacy2 campaign, encouraging reading of Ice-T's autobiography.

In 2019, he played "Swilley" in James Cullen Bressack's action film Beyond the Law, starring Johnny Messner, Steven Seagal, and DMX.

In 2020, Cobbs guest-starred in the two-part series finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. portraying an unnamed elderly S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. The following year, he was seen in Jay Silverman's Saving Paradise, in which he played "John Thompson" alongside William Moseley and Johanna Braddy. 

Cobbs' last screen appearance was in 2023 as "Daddy-D Usher" in the TV mini-series Incandescent Love starring Rodney Damon Collins, Tobias Armand, and Johnny Bazaldua.

Cobbs died on June 25, 2024, at the age of 90, at his home in Riverside, California.

Films

Television