Lee J. Cobb (December 8, 1911 – February 11, 1976) was an American actor.[1] He is best known for his performances in 12 Angry Men (1957), On the Waterfront (1954), and one of his last films, The Exorcist (1973). He also played the role of Willy Loman in the original Broadway production of Arthur Miller's 1949 play Death of a Salesman under the direction of Elia Kazan. On television, Cobb costarred in the first four seasons of the western series The Virginian. He typically played arrogant, intimidating, and abrasive characters, but often had roles as respectable figures such as judges and police officers.
Background
Cobb was born Leo Jacoby[2][3] in New York City, to a Jewish family of Russian and Romanian extraction.[4] He grew up in the Bronx, New York, on Wilkins Avenue, near Crotona Park. His parents were Benjamin (Benzion) Jacob, a compositor for a foreign-language newspaper, and Kate (Neilecht).[5] Cobb studied at New York University before making his film debut in The Vanishing Shadow (1934). He joined the Manhattan-based Group Theatre in 1935.[6]
Career
Cobb performed summer stock with the Group Theatre (New York) in 1936, when they summered at Pine Brook Country Club in Nichols, Connecticut.[7] During World War II Cobb served in the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces.[8]
Cobb entered films in the 1930s, successfully playing middle-aged and even older men while he was still a youth. He was cast as the Kralahome in the 1946 non-musical film Anna and the King of Siam. He also played the sympathetic doctor in The Song of Bernadette and appeared as James Coburn's supervisor in the spy spoofs In Like Flint and Our Man Flint.
He reprised his role of Willy Loman in the 1966 CBS television adaptation of Death of a Salesman, which included Gene Wilder, James Farentino, Bernie Kopell and George Segal. Cobb was nominated for an Emmy Award for the performance. Mildred Dunnock, who had co-starred in both the original stage version and the 1951 film version, again repeated her role as Linda, Willy's devoted wife.
In 1957 he appeared in Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men as the abrasive Juror #3. In 1959, on CBS' DuPont Show of the Month, he starred in the dual roles of Miguel de Cervantes and Don Quixote in the play I, Don Quixote, which years later became the musical Man of La Mancha. Cobb also appeared as Wyoming ranch owner Judge Henry Garth in the first four seasons of the long-running NBC western television series The Virginian. His co-stars were James Drury, Doug McClure, Roberta Shore, Gary Clarke, Randy Boone, Clu Gulager and Diane Roter.
In 1968 his performance as King Lear with Stacy Keach as Edmund, René Auberjonois as the Fool and Philip Bosco as Kent achieved the longest run (72 performances) for the play in Broadway history.[9]
One of his final film roles was that of police detective Lt. Kinderman in the 1973 horror film The Exorcist.
He appeared alongside British actor Kenneth Griffiths in an ABC television documentary on the American Revolution called "Suddenly an Eagle," which was broadcast six months after his death.
Political activity
Cobb was accused of being a Communist in 1951 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee by Larry Parks, himself a former Communist Party member. Cobb was called to testify before HUAC but refused to do so for two years until, with his career threatened by the blacklist, he relented in 1953 and gave testimony in which he named 20 people as former members of the Communist Party USA.[10]
Later, Cobb explained why he "named names," saying:
When the facilities of the government of the United States are drawn on an individual it can be terrifying. The blacklist is just the opening gambit—being deprived of work. Your passport is confiscated. That's minor. But not being able to move without being tailed is something else. After a certain point it grows to implied as well as articulated threats, and people succumb. My wife did, and she was institutionalized. The HUAC did a deal with me. I was pretty much worn down. I had no money. I couldn't borrow. I had the expenses of taking care of the children. Why am I subjecting my loved ones to this? If it's worth dying for, and I am just as idealistic as the next fellow. But I decided it wasn't worth dying for, and if this gesture was the way of getting out of the penitentiary I'd do it. I had to be employable again.
— Interview with Victor Navasky for the 1980 book Naming Names
Following the hearing he resumed his career and worked with Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg, two other HUAC "friendly witnesses," on the 1954 film On the Waterfront, which is widely seen as an allegory and apologia for testifying.
Death
Cobb died of a heart attack in February 1976 in Woodland Hills, California, and was buried in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. He was survived by his second wife, Mary Hirsch.[11] His death came the day before his Exodus (1960) co-star Sal Mineo was murdered.
He was inducted, posthumously, into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981.[12]
Lee J. Cobb's wife from 1940 to 1950s was Yiddish-theater and film actress Helen Beverley (1916—2011). They had a daughter together, Julie Cobb.[13][14]
Crime and Punishment (1935)
Waiting for Lefty (1935)
Johnny Johnson (1936)
Golden Boy (1937)
Death of a Salesman (1949)
King Lear (1968)
Filmography
The Vanishing Shadow (1934)
North of the Rio Grande (1937)
Rustlers' Valley (1937)
Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937)
Danger on the Air (1938)
The Phantom Creeps (1939)
Golden Boy (1939)
This Thing Called Love (1940)
Men of Boys Town (1941)
Paris Calling (1941)
Down Rio Grande Way (1942)
The Moon Is Down (1943)
Tonight We Raid Calais (1943)
Buckskin Frontier (1943)
The Song of Bernadette (1943)
Winged Victory (1944)
Anna and the King of Siam (1946)
Johnny O'Clock (1947)
Boomerang! (1947)
Captain from Castile (1947)
Call Northside 777 (1948)
The Miracle of the Bells (1948)
The Luck of the Irish (1948)
The Dark Past (1948)
Thieves' Highway (1949)
The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)
Sirocco (1951)
The Family Secret (1951)
The Fighter (1952)
The Tall Texan (1953)
Yankee Pasha (1954)
Gorilla at Large (1954)
On the Waterfront (1954)
Day of Triumph (1954)
The Racers (1955)
The Road to Denver (1955)
The Left Hand of God (1955)
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)
Miami Exposé (1956)
12 Angry Men (1957)
The Garment Jungle (1957)
The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
The Brothers Karamazov (1958)
Man of the West (1958)
Party Girl (1958)
The Trap (1959)
Green Mansions (1959)
But Not for Me (1959)
Exodus (1960)
The Final Hour (1962)
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962)
The Brazen Bell (1962)
How the West Was Won (1962)
Death of a Salesman (1966 TV movie)
Our Man Flint (1966)
In Like Flint (1967)
The Day of the Owl (1968)
Coogan's Bluff (1968)
They Came to Rob Las Vegas (1968)
Mackenna's Gold (1969)
The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970)
Macho Callahan (1970)
Lawman (1971)
Ultimatum (1973)
Double Indemnity (1973 TV movie)
The Great Kidnapping (1973)
The Exorcist (1973)
The Balloon Vendor (1974)
Mark of the Cop (1975)
That Lucky Touch (1975)
Cross Shot (1976)
Nick the Sting (1976)
Radio appearances
Year Program Episode/source
1946 Hollywood Star Time The Song of Bernadette[15]
References
1. Obituary Variety, February 18, 1976.
2. Cinema - Part 1, Issues 205-210 - Page 158
3. Joseph F. Clarke (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA. p. 39.
4. Vernon Scott (January 4, 1976). "Bicentennial a 'very special event" for actor Lee J. Cobb". The Pittsburgh Press.
5. United States Census for 1920, Bronx (New York) Assembly District 4, District 254, Page 16
6. "Lee J. Cobb Biography". Biography.com.
7. "Pinewood Lake website". Pinewoodlake.org.
8. "World War II: The Movie | History of Flight | Air and Space Magazine". Airspacemag.com.
9. The Broadway League. "King Lear | IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information". IBDB.
10. Navasky, Victor (2003). Naming Names (Reprint ed.). Hill and Wang. ISBN 978-0809001835.
11. "Biography for Lee J. Cobb". tcm.com.
12. "''The New York Times'', March 3, 1981 - ''26 Elected to the Theater Hall of Fame''". Nytimes.com. 1981-03-03.
13. "Helen Beverley, Yiddish Theatre Actress, Dies at 94". Playbill.com. 2011-07-26.
14. Helen Beverley, Star of Yiddish Films Archived September 9, 2011 at the Wayback Machine
15. "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest 41 (2): 32–41. Spring 2015.
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