Lee J Cobb Biography

American character actor of stage, screen, and TV Lee J. Cobb, born Leo Jacob or Jacoby, was usually seen scowling and smoking a cigar. As a child, Cobb showed artistic promise as a virtuoso violinist, but any hope for a musical career was ended by a broken wrist. He ran away from home at age 17 and ended up in Hollywood. Unable to find film work there, he returned to New York and acted in radio dramas while going to night school at CCNY to learn accounting. Returning to California in 1931, he made his stage debut with the Pasadena Playhouse. Back in New York in 1935, he joined the celebrated Group Theater and appeared in several plays with them, including Waiting for Lefty and Golden Boy. He began his film career in 1937, going on to star and play supporting roles in dozens of films straight through to the end of his life. Cobb was most frequently cast as menacing villains, but sometimes appeared as a brooding business executive or community leader. His greatest triumph on stage came in the 1949 production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman in which he played the lead role, Willy Loman (he repeated his performance in a 1966 TV version). Between 1962-66, he also appeared on TV in the role of Judge Garth in the long-running series The Virginian. He was twice nominated for "Best Supporting Actor" Oscars for his work in On the Waterfront (1954) and The Brothers Karamazov (1958). ~ Rovi

• 1. Juror #3: What's the matter matter with you?
  2. Juror #4: I have a reasonable doubt.
  From 12 Angry Men (Twelve Angry Men). Submitted by Minh ??c T (9 months ago)

• 1. Juror #8: Ever since you walked into this room, you've been acting like a self-appointed public avenger! You want to see this boy die because you personally want it, not because of the facts! You're a sadist! [Three lunges wildly at Eight, who holds his ground. Several jurors hold Three back]
  2. Juror #3: I'll kill him! I'LL KILL HIM!
  3. Juror #8: You don't *really* mean you'll kill me, do you?
  From 12 Angry Men (Twelve Angry Men). Submitted by Al R (10 months ago)

• 1. Mr. Baker: Then you're a bum.
  From Come Blow Your Horn. Submitted by Howard M (11 months ago)

• 1. Lt. Kinderman: Well, this desecration in the church. Do you think this has anything to do with witchcraft?
  2. Father Damien Karras: Maybe. Some rituals use the Black Mass. Maybe.
  3. Lt. Kinderman: And now, Dennings, you read how he died?
  4. Father Damien Karras: In a fall.
  5. Lt. Kinderman: Let me tell you how, and please Father, confidential. Burke Dennings, good Father, was found at the bottom of those steps leading to M Street with his head turned completely around facing backwards.
  6. Father Damien Karras: It didn't happen in the fall?
  7. Lt. Kinderman: It's possible. Possible, however...
  8. Father Damien Karras: Unlikely.
  9. Lt. Kinderman: Exactly. So on the one hand, we've got a witchcraft kind of murder, and on the other hand a Black Mass type desecration in the church.
  10. Father Damien Karras: You think the killer and the desecrator are the same?
  11. Lt. Kinderman: Maybe somebody crazy. Somebody with a spite against the church; some unconscious rebellion.
  12. Father Damien Karras: A sick priest, is that it?
  13. Lt. Kinderman: Look, Father, this is hard for you. Please, I understand, but for priests on the campus here, you're the psychiatrist. You know who was sick at the time, who wasn't. I mean, this kind of sickness. You'd know that.
  From The Exorcist. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Lt. Kinderman: It's strange. The deceased comes to visit, stays only 20 minutes, and leaves all alone a very sick girl. And speaking plainly, Mrs. MacNeil, it isn't likely he would fall from a window. Besides, a fall wouldn't do to his neck what we found, except maybe one chance in a thousand. Nope, my hunch, my opinion, he was killed by a very powerful man, point one. - And the fracturing of his skull - point two. Plus the various other things we mentioned would make it very probable, probable, not certain, that the deceased was killed and then pushed from your daughter's window. But nobody was in the room, except your daughter. So how can this be? It could be one way. If someone came calling between the time Miss Spencer left and the time you returned.
  2. Chris MacNeil: Judas Priest. Just a second.
  From The Exorcist. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Johnny Friendly: Stop breathin' that clam juice on me.
  From On the Waterfront. Submitted by Debbie V (13 months ago)