And The Name Is Bill Cobbs!

His first film appearance was in "The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three"...
...but you may remember him as the narrator "Mose" in one of my favorite Coen Brother films "The Hudsucker Proxy"...
... and certainly the young people will remember him as one of the old, sinister janitors in "Night At The Museum". Here, he and Dick Van Dyke contemplate leaving as Mickey Rooney launches into another one of his stories(rants) about the way things used to be...

Bill Cobbs is one of those guys who's been around for-frickin'-ever and his resume shows it. And yet his first credits happened when he was almost forty! Just goes to show what a little hard work can do.

Here's what those falsehood purveyors at Wikipedia say...

William Francisco "Bill" Cobbs (born June 16, 1935) is an American film actor. He has starred in over 120 television programs and movies.

Cobbs was born in Cleveland, Ohio to a domestic worker mother and a father who worked in construction.[1] He was a part of the Negro Ensemble Company. Cobbs has appeared and been a regular on many television programs including: The Michael Richards Show, The Outer Limits, I'll Fly Away, Yes, Dear, The Sopranos, The Others, JAG, The Drew Carey Show, Lost, October Road, and many more.

In 2006, Cobbs played a supporting role in Night at the Museum as Reginald, a security guard on the verge of retirement. He also played basketball coach and retired basketball player Arthur Chaney in Disney's Air Bud. He had a pivotal role in the Coen Brothers' The Hudsucker Proxy and played a jazz pianist in Tom Hanks' That Thing You Do.

He recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's 'Hip-Hop Literacy' campaign, encouraging reading of Ice-T's autobiography.

Like a lot of character actors I like, it's hard to find a lot about them on the intertubes. So, I'll go with what I know...

I always enjoy seeing Cobbs in a film. His warm, gravely voice makes for perfect narrator in The Coens' "The Hudsucker Proxy" and he is just the guy to bring home the moral of Tom Hanks' "That Thing You Do", when he appears late in the film. I read some wag on IMDB's comment section remark that Cobbs is "the poor man's Morgan Freeman".

And by "wag", I mean "jackass".

Cobbs is one of those guys who provides a certain dramatic stability in whatever they appear in. You know you're in good hands when Cobbs arrives in a scene.