No One Could Tee Up a Bullfrog Like Bill Cobbs

Nobody lives forever, but Bill Cobbs’s passing at 90 still came as a surprise. His Einstein eyes and reedy voice made him seem like a timeless fount of wisdom when he was barely into his 40s. That aura only deepened as he aged.

Cobbs often played characters who exuded a quiet authority as well as a world-weary immunity from being hoodwinked: people who saw more and further than anyone else and whose knowledge was not always heeded. He stood out in stacked casts of The Bodyguard...