Bill Cobbs: That Thing He Did!

We all know who the big starsare, even if we haven’t always seen their movies. Their faces are on movieposters and magazine covers; their names are embedded on the Hollywood Walk ofFame, and their footprints decorate the forecourt of the Chinese Theater onHollywood Blvd. Long after they’re dead and buried, we still talk aboutElizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe. Their bodies may nothave survived, but their reputations certainly live on and on. Greta Garbo’scareer was before my time, but her image remains in my memory banks. Such isthe power of movies.

 Most working actors inHollywood don’t achieve that kind of celebrity. Even those who land fairlysteady paychecks for their film and TV roles can expect to remain unknown tothe public at large. I remember once interviewing a wonderful actor named RenéAuberjonois in his lovely Windsor Square home, complete with a verdant gardenand a yoga hut. I’d delighted in seeing him many times in local theatreproductions, usually playing lead characters who were charming and flamboyant.My interview with him, for the Los Angeles Music Center’s program magazine, ofcourse emphasized his stage roles. But stage stardom is a sometime thing, andcan’t often support a cushy lifestyle. Auberjonois mentioned to me in passingthat he was lucky indeed: his looks and skill-set were in great demand inHollywood, and he was paid handsomely to take colorful character parts.Examples: he was Father Mulcahy in the original Robert Altman film version of M*A*S*H,and had small but significant roles in both Star Trek VI and ThePrincess Diaries. He was also featured on television, and  did a great deal of voice work for animatedfilms, TV, and video games. A household name? Hardly. But a very comfortablelife indeed. When he passed away in 2019 at age 79, there were small tributesin the press.

 Another of those greatjourneyman actors has just reached the end of the line. Bill Cobbs made it to90, still active through 2022. His film roles were sometimes modest, rangingfrom Man on Platform in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) to Manin Lunchroom in Silkwood (1983). Happily, his parts gradually gotlarger. He had a significant presence as Moses, the clock expert, in the Coenbrothers’ screwball The Hudsucker Proxy, and played a sneaky securityguard  in the first Night at theMuseum (2006).

I cherish his performance inthe first film Tom Hanks ever wrote and directed, That Thing You Do! (1996).The light-hearted story, set in the rock ‘n roll Sixties, is about four youngamateur musicians who record an original pop song that unexpectedly tops thecharts nationwide. Hanks gives himself the role of the A&R record exec whospots the quartet. The Wonders (as in “one-hit wonders”) seem poised forgenuine stardom until—inevitably—their very different goals pull them apart.The four nicely-cast musicians are Johnathon Schaech as the ambitious leadsinger, Ethan Embry as the naïve bass player who’d rather be a Marine, SteveZahn as the stoner lead guitarist, and Tom Everett Scott (a young Hankslookalike) as the drummer who has a deep-seated love of music. It is Scott’scharacter who, late in the film, happens upon a legendary jazz pianist, someonewho reinforces his true passion for great musicianship. The film’s climax istheir impromptu jazz duet, one that reminds young Guy of what he truly valuesin life. This is a small role for Cobbs, but a deeply appealing one. Bill Cobbswill be missed.