Lee J.

Cobb
Lee J. Cobb (born Leo Jacoby;[2][3] December 8, 1911 –
Lee J. Cobb
February 11, 1976) was an American actor.[4] He 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. He also performed in On the
Waterfront (1954), 12 Angry Men (1957), and The Exorcist
(1973). On television, Cobb starred in the first four seasons
of the Western series The Virginian. He often played
arrogant, intimidating and abrasive characters, but he also
acted as respectable figures such as judges. He was twice
nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting
Actor, for The Brothers Karamazov (1958) and On the
Waterfront (1954).

Contents
circa 1960s
Background
Born Leo Jacoby
Career
December 8, 1911
Political activity The Bronx, New York, U.S.
Personal life Died February 11, 1976
Death (aged 64)
Other Honors Woodland Hills, California,
U.S.
Selected Broadway credits
Resting place Mount Sinai Memorial Park
Filmography
Cemetery
Radio appearances
Occupation Actor
See also
Years active 1934–1976
References
Spouse(s) Helen Beverley
External links (m. 1940; div. 1952)
Mary Brako Hirsch (m. 1957)
Children 4, including Julie Cobb
Background
Military career
Cobb was born in New York City, to a Jewish family of Allegiance United States of
Russian and Romanian origin.[5] He grew up in the Bronx, America
New York, on Wilkins Avenue, near Crotona Park. His
parents were Benjamin (Benzion) Jacob, a compositor for a Service/ United States Army Air
foreign-language newspaper, and Kate (Neilecht).[6] Cobb branch Forces
studied at New York University before making his film Years of 1942–45
debut in The Vanishing Shadow (1934). He joined the
service
Manhattan-based Group Theatre in 1935.[7]
Rank Corporal[1]
 Unit First Motion Picture Unit
Career
Battles/wars World War II
Cobb performed summer stock with the Group Theatre in Awards Victory Medal
1936, when it summered at Pine Brook Country Club in Campaign Medal
Nichols, Connecticut.[8] During World War II, Cobb served
in the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army
Air Forces.[9]

Cobb entered films in the 1930s, successfully playing middle-aged and even older characters while he was still
a youth. His first credited role was in the 1937 Hopalong Cassidy oater Rustlers' Valley where he was billed
using the stage name Lee Colt. In all subsequent films, he used Lee Cobb and later Lee J. Cobb. He was cast
as the Kralahome in the 1946 nonmusical film Anna and the King of Siam. He also played the sympathetic
doctor in The Song of Bernadette and appeared as Derek Flint's (James Coburn) supervisor in the James Bond
spy spoofs Our Man Flint and In Like Flint. He reprised his role of Willy Loman in the 1966 CBS television
adaptation of the famous play 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 August 1955, while filming The Houston Story, Cobb

suffered a heart attack and was replaced by Gene
Barry.[10]

In 1957, he appeared in Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men,

the unique trial jury deliberations drama, 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
How the West Was Won
Don Quixote in the play I, Don Quixote, which years
later became the musical Man of La Mancha. Cobb also
appeared as the Medicine Bow, Wyoming owner of the
Shiloh Ranch, Judge Henry Garth in the first four seasons (1962–1966), of the long-running NBC Western
television series The Virginian (1962–1971).

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.[11]

One of his final film roles was that of Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police homicide detective Lt.
Kinderman in the 1973 horror film The Exorcist about a demonic possession of a teen-age girl (Linda Blair) in
Georgetown, D. C.

His last television role was as a stalwart overworked elderly physician still making house calls in urban
Baltimore, in Doctor Max, a TV pilot for a potential series which never materialized.

He appeared alongside British actor Kenneth Griffith 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 (HUAC) of the U.S. House of Representatives of the Congress, by Larry Parks, himself an
admitted 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.[12]

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.

Personal life
Cobb married Yiddish theatre and film actress Helen Beverley in 1940.[7] They had two children, including
actress Julie Cobb, before divorcing in 1952. Cobb's second marriage was to school teacher Mary Hirsch, with
whom he also had two children.[7]

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.[13]

He was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981.[14]

Other Honors
1966, Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement[15]
1981, American Theatre Hall of Fame

Selected Broadway credits

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) as Roadwork
Foreman [Chs. 3, 4] (uncredited)
North of the Rio Grande (1937) as Goodwin
Rustlers' Valley (1937) as Cal Howard
Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937) as Arab
Danger on the Air (1938) as Tony Lisotti
Golden Boy (1939) as Mr. Bonaparte
The Phantom Creeps (1939) as Road Crew
Foreman (uncredited) (archive footage)
This Thing Called Love (1940) as Julio Diestro Cobb as Johnny Friendly with Marlon Brando as
Men of Boys Town (1941) as Dave Morris Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954)
Paris Calling (1941) as Captain Schwabe
Down Rio Grande Way (1942) (uncredited)
The Moon Is Down (1943) as Dr. Albert Winter
Tonight We Raid Calais (1943) as M. Bonnard
Buckskin Frontier (1943) as Jeptha Marr
The Song of Bernadette (1943) as Dr. Dozous
Winged Victory (1944) as Doctor
Anna and the King of Siam (1946) as
Kralahome
Johnny O'Clock (1947) as Inspector Koch
Boomerang! (1947) as Chief Harold F. 'Robbie' Cobb as Johnny Friendly in On the Waterfront
Robinson (1954)
Captain from Castile (1947) as Juan Garcia
Call Northside 777 (1948) as Brian Kelly
The Miracle of the Bells (1948) as Marcus
Harris
The Luck of the Irish (1948) as David C. Augur
The Dark Past (1948) as Dr. Andrew Collins
Thieves' Highway (1949) as Mike Figlia
The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950) as Lt.
Ed Cullen
Sirocco (1951) as Col. Feroud
The Family Secret (1951) as Howard Clark
The Fighter (1952) as Durango
The Tall Texan (1953) as Capt. Theodore Bess
Yankee Pasha (1954) as Sultan With William Holden in Golden Boy (1939)
Gorilla at Large (1954) as Detective Sgt.
Garrison
On the Waterfront (1954) as Johnny Friendly
Day of Triumph (1954) as Zadok
The Racers (1955) as Maglio
The Road to Denver (1955) as Jim Donovan
The Left Hand of God (1955) as Mieh Yang
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956) as
Judge Bernstein
Miami Exposé (1956) as Lt. Barton 'Bart' Scott
12 Angry Men (1957) as Juror #3
The Garment Jungle (1957) as Walter Mitchell
The Three Faces of Eve (1957) as Doctor
Curtis Luther
The Brothers Karamazov (1958) as Fyodor
Karamazov
Man of the West (1958) as Dock Tobin
Party Girl (1958) as Rico Angelo
The Trap (1959) as Victor Massonetti
Green Mansions (1959) as Nuflo
But Not for Me (1959) as Jeremiah MacDonald
Exodus (1960) as Barak Ben Canaan
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962) as
Julio Madariaga
How the West Was Won (1962) as Marshal Lou
Ramsey
The Brazen Bell (1962) as Judge Henry Garth
The Virginian (Seasons 1-4)
Come Blow Your Horn (1963) as Harry R.
Baker
The Final Hour (1965) as Judge Garth
Our Man Flint (1966) as Lloyd C. Cramden
Death of a Salesman (1966, TV Movie) as Willy
Loman
In Like Flint (1967) as Lloyd C. Cramden
The Day of the Owl (1968) as Don Mariano
Arena
Coogan's Bluff (1968) as Lieutenant McElroy
They Came to Rob Las Vegas (1968) as Steve
Skorsky
Mackenna's Gold (1969) as The Editor
The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970) as Oman
Hedgepath
Macho Callahan (1970) as Duffy
Lawman (1971) as Vincent Bronson
Heat Of Anger (1972, TV Movie) as Frank
Galvin
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973) as
Harvey Lapchance
Double Indemnity (1973, TV Movie) as Barton
Keyes
Ultimatum (1973)
The Great Kidnapping (1973) as Ex Quaestor
Iovine
 The Exorcist (1973) as Washington, D.C.
Metropolitan Police Lt. William Kinderman,
homicide detective
Dr. Max (1974 TV movie) as Dr. Maxwell 'Max'
Gordon
Trapped Beneath the Sea (1974, TV Movie) as
Victor Bateman
The Great Ice Rip-Off (1974, TV Movie) as Willy
Calso
The Balloon Vendor (1974) as Twenty Years
Mark of the Cop (1975) as Benzi
That Lucky Touch (1975) as Lt. Gen. Henry
Steedman
Mark Shoots First (1975) as Il commendator
Benzi
Nick the Sting (1976) as Robert Clark
Cross Shot (1976) as Dante Ragusa (final film
role)

Radio appearances
Year Program Episode/source

1945 Suspense "The Bet"[16]

1946 Hollywood Star Time The Song of Bernadette[17]

See also
McCarthyism
Second Red Scare

References
1. https://airforce.togetherweserved.com/usaf/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApps?
cmd=ShadowBoxProfile&type=Person&ID=173546
2. Cinema - Part 1, Issues 205-210 - Page 158
3. Clarke, Joseph F. (1977). Pseudonyms (https://archive.org/details/pseudonymsnamesb01clar).
Thomas Nelson. p. 39 (https://archive.org/details/pseudonymsnamesb01clar/page/39).
ISBN 978-0840765673.
4. McQuiston, John T. (February 12, 1976). "Lee J. Cobb, the Actor, Is Dead at 64" (https://www.ny
times.com/1976/02/12/archives/lee-j-cobb-the-actor-is-dead-at-64-a-veritable-landmark.html).
The New York Times. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
5. Scott, Vernon (January 4, 1976). "Bicentennial a 'very special event" for actor Lee J. Cobb" (htt
ps://news.google.com/newspapers?id=RMUdAAAAIBAJ&pg=6763,1901672). The Pittsburgh
Press. Retrieved March 24, 2009.
6. United States Census for 1920, Bronx (New York) Assembly District 4, District 254, Page 16
 7. "Lee J. Cobb Biography" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100521014530/http://www.biography.c
om/articles/Lee-J.-Cobb-9542417). Biography.com. Archived from the original (https://www.biog
raphy.com/people/lee-j-cobb-9542417) on May 21, 2010. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
8. "About" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110727174723/http://www.pinewoodlake.org/).
Pinewood Lake Association. Archived from the original (http://pinewood-lake.org/wp/?page_id=
70) on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2012-07-25.
9. Betancourt, Mark (March 2012). "World War II: The Movie" (http://www.airspacemag.com/history
-of-flight/World-War-II-The-Movie.html?c=y&page=2). Air & Space Magazine. Retrieved
2019-10-01.
10. Dixon, Wheeler W. (2005). Lost in the Fifties: Recovering Phantom Hollywood (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=_NlFWWKnjXwC&q=Cobb+Houston). Carbondale: Southern Illinois Univ
Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-0809326532. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
11. "King Lear" (http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3432). IBDB. Retrieved 2012-11-08.
12. Navasky, Victor (2003). Naming Names (https://books.google.com/books?id=wg0ypcai-osC&q
=cobb) (Reprint ed.). Hill & Wang. pp. 268–273. ISBN 978-0809001835.
13. "Biography for Lee J. Cobb" (http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/participant.jsp?spid=35965&apid=967
91). Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
14. "26 Elected to the Theater Hall of Fame" (https://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/03/theater/26-elect
ed-theater-hall-fame-26-broadway-voted-into-theater-hall-fame.html). The New York Times.
March 3, 1981. Retrieved 2012-07-25.
15. "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement" (https://achievement.org/o
ur-history/golden-plate-awards/). www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
16. "Suspense: The Bet" (http://www.escape-suspense.com/2012/10/suspense-the-bet.html).
Escape and Suspense!. October 15, 2012.
17. "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 41 (2): 32–41. Spring 2015.

External links
Lee J. Cobb (https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/67109) at the Internet Broadway
Database
Lee J. Cobb (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002011/) on IMDb
Lee J. Cobb (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/4514) at Find a Grave

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