Bill Cobbs’s second cousin was James Baskett, whose short career included Fats Crow in Dumbo and Uncle Remus in Song of the South. (Short because he died at the age of 44, two years after Song of the South was released.) I informed my partner of this, as I often tell him about interesting things I discover as I’m working on these articles. His comment was that nepotism often provides benefits in Hollywood. And that’s certainly true; I’ve written about enough families to agree that it’s true. On the other hand, Bill Cobbs was fourteen at the time, living in Cleveland, and he didn’t move to New York to be an actor until 1970.
In the years since then, Cobbs has become one of the more familiar sights in film and TV. He is not someone whose performances I have had to seek out to be ready to write this article; I’ve seen at least a dozen things he’s been in. Oh, some not recently, and some are still on the list to get around to, but if you can’t look at Cobbs and think of something you’ve seen him in, I’m sure just about everyone has a suggestion for you.
Unfortunately, yes, my suggestion is a literal Magical Negro character. Sorry. But The Hudsucker Proxy is such a fun play on screwball tropes, and I love it when the Coens go full screwball. They may have delayed the movie until they could get Paul Newman to be in it, but let’s be real—it took a lot of people to make that movie work, and Bill Cobbs was definitely one of them. He may not be the first person you remember; probably he’d make the top five. But still.
So okay, you want something else? There’s the delightfully bonkers Demolition Man; he’s got a minor role in that. Or if you haven’t seen Brother From Another Planet, let this be the excuse you need. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, and it’s obvious that he’s not one of the major characters in it. I’m not sure there’s anything where Bill Cobbs plays the main character. That’s okay; he’s a character actor. There are a lot of people I’ve written about who have never played a main character. I’ve never felt that was by itself a slight on their career.
If you don’t know Bill Cobbs, go learn who he is. I don’t actually expect you to know the name, but if you can look at the picture and be unfamiliar with him, that’s a shame. I can actually hear his voice. If you take no other suggestion from this column, let the one you go for to be seeking out Brother From Another Planet. I’m not saying it’s the best way to get to know Bill Cobbs as an actor, I’ll admit, but there are lots of reasons to see it and he’s one of them.
