Bill Cobbs

Bill Cobbs was one of those actors you'd recognize the second he appeared on screen even if you couldn't name him, and that quiet authority was the whole point. Born in Cleveland in 1934, he didn't break into film until his forties — which somehow only added to his gravitas. I love that he was the kind of performer directors kept calling back because he could anchor a scene with practically nothing: a look, a pause, a dry line reading. His turn as the kindly night guard Reginald in Night at the Museum brought him to a whole new generation, but serious film fans know his earlier work in The Brother from Another Planet is just as worth seeking out. He passed away in June 2024 at 90, and honestly the character-actor world is a little emptier for it.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Bill Cobbs

Name (Japanese)

ビル・コッブス

Reading

びる・こっぶす

Born

June 16, 1934 – June 25, 2024

Origin

Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Occupation

voice actor / television actor / film actor / actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Dog

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill%20Cobbs
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%93%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B3%E3%83%83%E3%83%96%E3%82%B9
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q862028

Tags

• Ohio
• voice actor
• television actor
• film actor

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.