Lee J. Cobb 1911-76, American actor, b. New York City. He first performed with the Pasadena (Calif.) Playhouse in 1929 and made his Broadway debut in Crime and Punishment (1935). Cobb created the role of Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1948-49; repeated for television in 1965). He performed Shakespeare in New York, including The Merchant of Venice and King Lear. A burly, powerful actor, he became a valuable supporting player in films, including On the Waterfront (1954), Twelve Angry Men (1957), The Brothers Karamazov (1958), and The Exorcist (1973).

Cobb, Lee J. [né Leo Jacoby] (1911–76), actor. The native New Yorker began his career in 1929 at the Pasadena Playhouse and did not make his first Broadway appearance until 1935, when he assumed a minor role in Crime and Punishment. That same year he joined the Group Theatre where his best‐remembered roles were Mr. Carp in Golden Boy (1937) and the bankrupt Lammanawitz in The Gentle People (1939). After playing important roles in short‐lived failures, such as Thunder Rock (1939), The Fifth Column (1940), and Clash by Night (1941), he replaced Alexander Knox as the lead in the comedy Jason (1942). Five years in Hollywood followed before Cobb returned to create his most famous role, Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman (1949). Brooks Atkinson wrote in the Times, “Mr. Cobb's tragic portrait of the defeated salesman is acting of the first rank. Although it is familiar and folksy in the details, it has something of the grand manner in the big size and deep tone.” Cobb's last appearances were in a revival of Golden Boy (1952), in The Emperor's Clothes (1953), and as King Lear (1968). He was described by Cecil Smith as “a massive man.. . .The face is big, each feature oversize—the large, soft, intelligent eyes; the big nose, jutting chin, wide cheekbones.”

COBB, Lee J.

Nationality: American. Born: Leo Jacoby in New York City, 8 December 1911 (some sources list 9 December). Education: Attended accounting classes at City College of New York (CCNY). Family: Married 1) Helen Beverly, 1940 (divorced 1952), children: Vincent and Julie; 2) Mary Hirsch, 1957, sons: Tony and Jerry. Career: 1920s—trained as a violinist, but broken wrist ended musical career; 1928—ran away from home to Hollywood, but failed to secure work in film industry as actor; 1928–31—returned to New York City and acted in radio dramas to pay for classes at CCNY; 1931—stage debut at Pasadena Playhouse, California; 1934—film debut in serial Vanishing Shadow ; 1935—joined Group Theater in New York; 1949—role as Willie Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman on Broadway; early 1950s—forced to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee; 1962–66—starred as Judge Henry Garth in TV series The Virginian ; 1970–71—in TV series The Young Lawyers. Died: In Woodland Hills, California, 11 February 1976.

Films as Actor:

1934

Vanishing Shadow (serial)

1937

North of the Rio Grande (Watt) (as Goodwin); Rustler's Valley (Watt) (as Cal Howard); Ali Baba Goes to Town (David Butler)

1938

Danger on the Air (Garrett) (as Tony)

1939

Golden Boy (Mamoulian) (as Mr. Bonaparte); The Phantom Creeps (serial)

1941

This Thing Called Love (Married but Single ) (Hall) (as Julio Diestro); Men of Boys Town (Taurog) (as Dave Morris); Paris Calling (Marin) (as Schwabe)

1943

The Moon Is Down (Pichel) (as Dr. Winter); Tonight We Raid Calais (Brahm) (as Bonnard); The Song of Bernadette (Henry King) (as Dr. Dozous); Buckskin Frontier (The Iron Road ) (Selander) (as Jeptha Marr)

1944

Winged Victory (Cukor) (as doctor)

1946

Anna and the King of Siam (Cromwell) (as Kralahome)

1947

Boomerang (Kazan) (as Chief Robinson); Captain from Castile (Henry King) (as Juan Garcia); Johnny O'Clock (Rossen) (as Inspector Koch); Carnival in Costa Rica (Ratoff)

1948

The Miracle of the Bells (Pichel) (as Marcus Harris); Call Northside 777 (Hathaway) (as Brian Kelly); The Luck of the Irish (Koster) (as D. C. Augur)

1949

The Dark Past (Maté) (as Dr. Andrew Collins); Thieves' Highway (Dassin) (as Mike Figlia)

1950

The Man Who Cheated Himself (Feist) (as Ed Cullen)

1951

Sirocco (Bernhardt) (as Col. Feroud); The Family Secret (Levin) (as Howard Clark)

1952

The Fighter (Kline) (as Durango)

1953

The Tall Texan (Williams) (as Capt. Theodore Bess)

1954

Yankee Pasha (Pevney) (as Sultan); Gorilla at Large (Harmon Jones) (as Det. Sgt. Garrison); On the Waterfront (Kazan) (as Johnny Friendly); Day of Triumph (Pichel and Coyle) (as Zadok)

1955

The Racers (Such Men Are Dangerous ) (Hathaway) (as Maglio); The Road to Denver (Kane) (as Jim Donovan); The Left Hand of God (Dmytryk) (as Mieh Yang)

1956

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (Johnson) (as Judge Bernstein); Miami Exposé (Sears) (as Bart Scott)

1957

Twelve Angry Men (Lumet) (as Juror no. 3); The Three Faces of Eve (Johnson) (as Dr. Luther); The Garment Jungle (Aldrich and Vincent Sherman) (as Walter Mitchell)

1958

The Brothers Karamazov (Richard Brooks) (as Fyodor Karamazov); Man of the West (Anthony Mann) (as Dock Tobin); Party Girl (Nicholas Ray) (as Rico Angelo)

1959

But Not for Me (Walter Lang) (as Jeremiah MacDonald); The Trap (The Baited Trap ) (Panama) (as Victor Massonetti); Green Mansions (Mel Ferrer) (as Nuflo)

1960

Exodus (Preminger) (as Barak Ben Canaan)

1962

The Brazen Bell (Sheldon—for TV); The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Minnelli) (as Julio Madariaga)

1963

"The Outlaws" ep. of How the West Was Won (Hathaway) (as Lou Ramsey); Come Blow Your Horn (Yorkin) (as Mr. Baker)

1966

Our Man Flint (Daniel Mann) (as Cramden)

1967

In Like Flint (Gordon Douglas) (as Cramden)

1968

Las Vegas 500 milliones (They Came to Rob Las Vegas ; Les Hommes de Las Vegas ) (Isasi) (as Skorsky); Il giorno della civetta (The Day of the Owl ; La Maffia fait la loi ; Mafia ) (Damiani) (as Don Mariano Arena); MacKenna's Gold (J. Lee Thompson) (as the editor); Coogan's Bluff (Siegel) (as Sheriff McElroy)

1970

The Liberation of L. B. Jones (Wyler) (as Oman Hedgepath); Macho Callahan (Kowalski) (as Duffy)

1971

Heat of Anger (Taylor—for TV); Lawman (Winner) (as Vincent Bronson)

1973

Double Indemnity (Smight—for TV); The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (Sarafian) (as Lapchance); La polizia sta a guardare (Infascelli); The Exorcist (Friedkin) (as Lt. Kinderman)

1974

Dr. Max (Goldstone—for TV) (title role); The Great Ice Ripoff (Curtis—for TV); Trapped beneath the Sea (Graham—for TV) (as Victor Bateman); Venditore di palloncini (The Last Circus Show ; The Balloon Vendor ; Last Moments ) (Gariazzo)

1975

Mark il poliziotta (Blood, Sweat and Fear ) (Massi); Ultimatum alla città (Ultimatum ); That Lucky Touch (Miles) (as Lt. Gen. Henry Steedman)

1976

I Amici di Nick Nezard (Nick the Sting ) (Di Leo); Cross Shot (La legge violenta della squadra anticrimine ) (Massi)

1979

Arthur Miller on Home Ground (Rasky)

Publications

On COBB: articles—

Current Biography 1960, New York, 1960.

Obituary in New York Times, 12 February 1976.

Pickard, Roy, "Lee J. Cobb," in Films in Review (New York), November 1977.

Cobb, Julie, "Lee J. Cobb: My Father," in Close-Ups: The Movie Star Book, edited by Danny Peary, New York, 1978.

Ecran (Paris), April 1978.

Lee J. Cobb died while preparing to repeat in Exorcist II: The Heretic the role of investigating detective he played in the original film. It was an ironic end for an actor whose impeccable credentials would, on any European stage, have earned him fame and honor. Unfortunately, this fine character actor, who appeared in the early plays of Odets for the Group Theatre and created Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, spent most of a long screen career in distinctive but undemanding work.

On occasion, Cobb would play thoughtful, supportive characters, such as the psychiatrist who attempts to cure Joanne Woodward of her psychological disorder in The Three Faces of Eve. But in his best screen roles, he was effectively cast as an urban predator paradoxically tormented by twentieth-century anxieties: a wolf with an ulcer. Cobb redeemed a score of routine roles as gang boss, cop, or rancher with his capacity for conveying disquiet or a residual sensitivity. Behind his snarl lurked a weakness that already had betrayed him or would do so in the last reel. Gang-boss Rico Angelo in Party Girl is softened by a fugitive sentimentality toward Robert Taylor's tame cultivated attorney, while loneliness for the son he terrorized away from him racks the bigot in Twelve Angry Men.

In comedy Cobb seldom convinced. His Jewish father in Come Blow Your Horn is a performance anyone might have given. But in Don Siegel's Coogan's Bluff he played a weary and impatient New York detective to some effect against Eastwood's Arizona cowboy cop.

Sensitive or not, Cobb had the crooked mouth that allowed him to play pure evil. Pouring acid over a paper party decoration in Party Girl to demonstrate what might happen to Cyd Charisse's face, blustering himself into exhausted acquiescence to Henry Fonda's intelligence and logic in Twelve Angry Men or, most memorably, as union racketeer Johnny Friendly, ranting at the longshoremen whom Marlon Brando leads back to work in On the Waterfront, he defined for all time a sector in the outer limits of urban desperation.

From an acting standpoint, On the Waterfront is most fondly recalled for the legendary "I coulda been a contender" taxicab scene between Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger. But Cobb's electrifying performance as Friendly—a bully destined to crumble and fall when one man becomes determined to defy him—remains every bit as impressive as those of Brando and Steiger.

—John Baxter, updated by Rob Edelman