Bill Cobbs agent confirmed the actor died on Tuesday evening in California surrounded by his family. Cobbs played Whitney Houston's manager Bill Devaney in the 1992 film The Bodyguard, which also starred Kevin Costner. The veteran actor also portrayed security guard Reggie in 2006's Night at the Museum, opposite Ben Stiller and Robin Williams. The actor's other film credits included Air Bud, Sunshine State, Get Low, Ghosts of Mississippi, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Color of Money, Demolition Man and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. He also appeared in episodes of The West Wing, The Sopranos, LA Law, One Tree Hill, NYPD Blue, Six Feet Under, CSI and Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Daedalus” as transporter inventor, Emory Erikson.
Cobbs was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1934. Before becoming an actor, he served eight years in the US air force, and sold cars in the years after his service. He began acting after a customer asked him if he wanted to appear in a play, and Cobbs made his first stage appearance in 1969. A year later, he moved to New York to pursue further acting work.In 2020, Cobbs won a Daytime Emmy for his appearance in Dino Dana, a Canadian children’s educational show.The Wire star Wendell Pierce, who worked with Cobbs on I'll Fly Away and The Gregory Hines Show, described him as a "father figure, an iconic artist. He shared so many stories about the city he loved. It's serendipity that I'm here in Cleveland as I learn of his passing. He comes from a great legacy of the Black Theatre.
His passing reminds me of the talent pool that populated the Black Theatre at that time. They were that Moses generation that is leaving us now passing on a great responsibility."
