A short 20-mile trip up the Hudson into Westchester County would find Tarrytown, NY, where actor Keith Hamilton Cobb was reared. Cobb developed his allure for the cinema from his youthful days of spending $1.50 to watch movies at the famous Tarrytown Music Hall.
"All of the land on the eastside of the Hudson was very stratified.
Generally, the lower income folks were down by the train tracks and it became more and more affluent and white as you ascended the hill. My neighbors were primarily Italian and Jewish. My parents were professional and one of the first people of color to buy property somewhere in the middle of the hill," recalled Cobb.
It wasn't until after high school that Cobb considered acting. The initial plan was to do some writing and then teach.
"I was in junior college studying English and trying to write and thinking I might teach but really having no idea what I was going to do. I was working on Shakespeare but was having difficulty reading it. I think Shakespeare was never really meant to be read. It was never meant to be presented to people as literature. It is not literature. It's living form. It was meant to be performed. I realized that when Shakespeare is done well, it becomes very clear because it's really about life," states Cobb.
Keith decided to continue his studies and applied to NYU. He was accepted and ended up earning a BFA degree but decided against pursuing a Masters degree.
"I didn't see any value in pursuing a Masters degree. What does one do with it? I no longer wanted to teach. No one goes to an acting school to learn to be a teacher. People leave there to act. Were, I to have the opportunity to teach, I think all I can do is teach someone to act like me," chuckled the amused thespian.
Cobb went on to apprenticeship at the Jersey Shakespeare Festival for the summer and was so disillusioned by the experience he stayed away from the profession for a couple of years. "I worked in a bookstore for a while and painted houses, eventually returning to produce theatre at the request of some of my old professors. This was my reintroduction back into the craft."
In 1988, Keith did a cameo in an independent film with Charles Dutton entitled, "Astonished." "It was rather a modern day take-off of Dostoyevsky's tale of Crime and Punishment," remarked Cobb. He also starred in another independent film, "Eyes Beyond Seeing," which was a psychological drama about a delusional messianic-type character. The film developed a following outside the country and became a phenomenon in its own right. Keith went on to do the soap opera, "All My Children." "I played Noah Keefer who was an interesting character. The soap was like nothing I had done in the past and I remained on it for two years. But six months into the show, I realized for me personally, it had become this thing, this form that had taken on a certain shape that didn't deviate. There wasn't a lot of room for creativity within it. It just became this soap opera formula where we say the same thing everyday. Different words of course, but primarily there is little room for change."
After the soap, Keith was still searching to do theatre and went off to LA. He found his stint on the soap had given him a "day time" stigma. He was labeled as the 'soap' guy and the guy with the long hair (he has since cut it). "There is a lot of fear in Hollywood and no one wants to make mistakes, so they go with the winning formula. I had a 'look' that is different and rather than say to me can you cut the hair or give us a different look, they passed on me completely," remarks Cobb. "The business of show business has no love, no kindness -- there is no science to it. It's an amorphous thing. This is not a business where you are promised any love or support. It's a business you have to love and feel that you are born to in order to survive within it."
Three years went by with Keith doing guest spots for television. He did a guest spot on the "Fresh Prince," "Boston Common," "One on One" and on "Suddenly Susan." "Suddenly Suzanne was a half hour show. They rehearse for 4 days and on the 5th day, they tape. I was there all week. Brooke Shields is an extremely gracious woman and my experience with that show is one I remember fondly," recalls Cobb. Cobb did 2 episodes of "Beast master" which was filmed in Australia. "We filmed it on the Gold coast during the winter. We were filming out in the bush. "You know strangely enough I didn't see many Aboriginals while in Australia. In these countries, the Aboriginals seem to live on reservations and in housing projects. I find these natives all seem to suffer the same fate. Here are these spiritual people living in a place where they did not jive with the commercial manifest destiny ideas of western culture and henceforth had to be subsumed. Many are poor and it is always a struggle and difficult to overcome, re-establish, and take back their power from that huge thing that has taken over. It's very similar to the native situation in the U.S., and in Canada, where I was filming the show, "Andromeda." Keith played the role of Tyr Anasazi on the popular sci-fi program "Andromeda" until recently. The show airs in Canada, The United States and in the UK. Cobb did four seasons playing opposite Kevin Sorbo before leaving it to return to the soaps. He is presently playing the character of Damon Porter, a brilliant and charismatic chemist on "The Young and The Restless."
Cobbs' great devotion to the theatre, finds him gravitating toward it whenever he can. He enacted Shakespeare's work, "Coriolanus," playing the role of the warrior, Tullus Aufidius, at the prestigious Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., to good reviews.
An amateur photographer, Cobb, has taken some excellent photographs which can be viewed on his website www.KeithHamiltonCobb.com. "I was in one of the South African townships, but prior to that, had only seen the images of South Africa on television. So, one is never prepared for the miles and miles of 10' x 10' corrugated steel shacks where these people live, day in and day out. Yet, the Africans have such vibrant spirits. Everyone is embracing and happy to see you. They love life regardless. I spent two weeks in Africa and a week and a half taking pictures of these townships and it was really an amazing experience."
Who knows where Keith Hamilton Cobb will follow his destiny or what characters he will draw off the pages from the script of life. "The universe is there in support always," say Keith of his philosophy. "Everything happens for a reason and the perfect reason. I am perfect now. Every decision is the right decision and grace is the only workable frame of mind and workable way of being."
Deardra Shuler is a journalist in the New York City area. She serves as the
Entertainment Editor of the Black Star News and freelances for several
minority print and Internet papers. She has a background in concert
promotion, theatre, radio and television and is the host of her own talk
show, "Topically Yours," on the BlakeRadio Network. Email her at:
Dshuler@schaefferkrongold.com.