Bill Cobbs, Star of “Night at the Museum” and “The Bodyguard,” Passes Away at 90

Bill Cobbs, the versatile actor known for his roles in films like The Hudsucker Proxy, Sunshine State, and Night at the Museum, has passed away at the age of 90.

“Bill passed away peacefully at his home in California” on Tuesday, his family said in a statement posted Wednesday on Facebook. “A beloved partner, big brother, uncle, surrogate parent, godfather and friend, Bill recently and happily celebrated his 90th birthday surrounded by cherished loved ones. As a family we are comforted knowing Bill has found peace and eternal rest with his Heavenly Father. We ask for your prayers and encouragement during this time.”

A Cleveland native, Cobbs was a master of both comedy and drama. He charmed audiences as Whitney Houston’s manager in The Bodyguard (1992), depicted Medgar Evers’ brother in Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), and shone as a jazz pianist in That Thing You Do! (1996). Cobbs also portrayed the Master Tinker in Oz the Great and Powerful (2013).

Cobbs also had notable TV roles, including the sardonic bartender on The Slap Maxwell Story, the bus driver Tony on The Drew Carey Show, and Dr. Emory Erickson in Star Trek: Enterprise. His versatility also landed him parts in The Gregory Hines Show and as a wise coach in Air Bud (1997).

The star actor was born Wilbert Francisco Cobbs on June 16, 1934. After graduating from East Tech High School in Cleveland, he served for eight years in the U.S. Air Force, where he experimented with stand-up comedy. He worked for IBM and sold cars before he acted on stage for the first time in 1969 in the anti-apartheid musical Lost in the Stars at Karamu House in his hometown.

He quickly followed with roles in Ossie Davis’ Purlie and Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search for an Author at the venerable Cleveland theater. Cobbs headed east a year later and joined the Negro Ensemble Company in New York, working with the likes of Davis, Ruby Dee, Adolph Caesar, and Moses Gunn. “Once I realized I could walk on the stage with people like that, I thought, ‘Maybe I can be an actor,’” he recalled in 2015.

Alongside Caesar and Esther Rolle, Cobbs appeared off-Broadway in 1971’s Ride a Black Horse and then in Black Visions for the Joseph Papp Public Theater.

For his big-screen debut, he showed up on a subway platform in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974). “I came back home to see my mom and dad, and all our friends and neighbors went to see the movie, and everyone was waiting for my appearance,” he said in 2013. “I walk up to a policeman in the subway and say, ‘Hey, man. What’s goin’ on?’”

Cobbs’ film résumé also included Greased Lightning (1977), Trading Places (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), The Color of Money (1986), New Jack City (1991), The Hard Way (1991), The People Under the Stairs (1991), Demolition Man (1993), Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead (1995), Hope Floats (1998), A Mighty Wind (2003), Three Days to Vegas (2007), Get Low (2009), and The Muppets (2011).

Cobbs was a regular on Sam Waterston’s I’ll Fly Away, The Michael Richards Show, Julianne Nicholson’s The Others, and Matthew Perry’s Go On. He guest-starred on many other series, from The Equalizer, Kate & Allie, and The Sopranos to Six Feet Under and Yes, Dear.