Bill Cobbs, the veteran character actor who appeared in over 120 films and television shows, has died. He was 90. He was best known for his much-loved movie appearances in Night at the Museum , The Bodyguard and The Hudsucker Proxy , as well as television shows The Sopranos , The West Wing and Six Feet Under .
He died on Tuesday night (June 25) at his home in Riverside, California, his publicist Chuck Jones told TMZ . Among the many fans paying tribute to Cobbs on social media was Abbott Elementary star Sheryl Lee Ralph, who wrote : “Emmy winner, working actor and wonderful human being, Bill Cobbs transitioned to act on a higher stage June 25th after celebrating his 90th birthday June 16th RIP.” Cobbs won his Emmy in 2020 for Outstanding Limited Performance in a Daytime Program after appearing on children’s show Dino Dana .
Born in Cleveland, Ohio on June 16, 1934, Cobbs held several jobs before ever pursuing an acting career. He served in the US Air Force as a radar technician for eight years before working for IBM and as a car salesman. It was only in 1970, at the age of 36, that he moved to New York to seek stage and screen work.
Cobbs made his film debut with a brief appearance in the 1974 crime drama The Taking of Pelham One Two Three . He worked steadily through the 1980s and in 1992 landed the eye-catching role of Whitney Houston’s manager in the romantic drama The Bodyguard. In 1994, the Coen brothers cast Cobbs as Moses in The Hudsucker Proxy , a central char.
