Lee J. Cobb

Lee J. Cobb was born in 1911 in New York City, to Russian Jewish parents. His father was a tailor, and his mother was a homemaker. Cobb grew up in the Bronx, and studied at New York University before making his film debut in 1934. His first major role was in The Vanishing Shadow (1934), and he continued to appear in theater productions and companies throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Cobb served in the Army Air Forces during World War II, and after the war he resumed his film career. He 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 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. Following the hearing he resumed his career and worked with Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg, two other HUAC "friendly witnesses". Cobb's performance as King Lear in 1968 earned him the longest run (72 performances) for the play in Broadway history. He also appeared in such films as On the Waterfront (1954), 12 Angry Men (1957), and The Exorcist (1973). 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, and daughter, also an accomplished actress, Julie Cobb.