The 'brains' and 'action' heavies who had meaty roles and lots of dialog ... and the players who were fathers, ranch owners, lawman, mayors, judges, lawyers, storekeepers, newspaper editors, wardens, etc.

Edmund Cobb Real name: Edmund Fessenden Cobb 1892 - 1974

(Courtesy of Les Adams) Above from L-to-R are Edmund Cobb, Reb Russell and Yvonne Pelletier in Reb's LIGHTNING TRIGGERS (Willis Kent, 1935).

(Courtesy of Les Adams) In the above ad, notice that Cobb is billed as 'Edwin'.  And the Frank Walker is Francis Walker.

(Courtesy of Ed Tabor) Above, an arcade card during Cobb's silent film period when he did hero roles.

(Courtesy of Bart Romans) Above is an exhibitor/vending card showing a very young Edmund Cobb, circa mid to late 1920s.  The Ex. Sup. Co., U.S.A. marking stands for the Exhibit Supply Company of Chicago, a firm which manufactured vending machine novelties from around 1901 to the mid-1960s. It went out of business around 1979.  The "Capturing a Bad Man" is not a film title.  Does Cobb have the drop on 1930s baddie Roger Williams?

Edmund Cobb came to Hollywood around 1910, and did bit parts and supporting roles in various silent films.  He even starred for Arrow Pictures and Universal in some silent westerns during the 1920s. In the sound era, Cobb had a very brief shot at playing the lead in a ultra low budget oater called RACKETEER ROUND-UP (Awyon, 1934) which may have been helmed by Robert J. Horner (using the name Robert Hoyt).  About a year later, the film was re-released as GUNNERS AND GUNS (Beaumont, 1935). Cobb also attempted a hero role in the dreadful Victor Adamson/Art Mix Production, THE RAWHIDE TERROR (Security, 1934) - see lobby card below. Cobb is best remembered for scores of roles in westerns and serials during the 1930s - 1950s, where he generally portrayed a henchman or a lawman.  He also did lots of other film work, and can be seen in minor roles in the CHARLIE CHAN, FALCON and MA & PA KETTLE film series.  He even had a bit in Orson Welles' CITIZEN KANE. You'll also be able to spot Cobb in some of the early TV westerns such as WILD BILL HICKOK. Les Adams has Cobb's sound film work at about 415 films --- of that total, 246 are westerns and 61 are cliffhangers.  He appeared in about 100 films at Republic Pictures from 1936-1956, and most of these were cliffhangers and oaters.  His work in silents, either as a bit player or star, will remain unknown since many of those films have been lost. Go to the In Search Of ... page on the Old Corral.  The California Death Records database as well as the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) have records on Edmund Cobb --- his birthplace is New Mexico, birthdate was 6/23/1892, and he passed away on 8/15/1974. Rick Albright checked the 1930 online census database and found the following info on Cobb: April 1930, 1612 N. Alexandria, Los Angeles, CA. Edmund F. COBB, age 37, divorced, renting/$45 per month, born New Mexico, parents born New Mexico and New York, artist/motion picture studio. Eddie M. COBB, daughter, age 14, born Illinois, parents born New Mexico and Tennessee, no occupation.

  Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has information on Edmund Cobb: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0167760/

As of January, 2007, it looks like Grapevine Video has four of Cobb's silent starring films: http://grapevinevideo.com/Edmund_Cobb_Shorts.htm

(Courtesy of Dale Crawford & Jim Sorensen)

Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood, California, Block G, Section 6910, Lot 5.

(Courtesy of the S. J. P. Collection)

For several years, Mary Toluchanian and ye Old Corral webmaster have exchanged e-mails about Edmund Cobb and family. Mary is a second cousin, twice removed, of Edmund Cobb. She has done a considerable amount of genealogical research into the family of her second great-grandfather, William Wallace Ross, and his brother, Edmund Gibson Ross, grandfather of Edmund Cobb.

Special thanks to Mary for the information and the photo left of Edmund Cobb as a youngster.  The following is a consolidation of several e-mails from Mary:

Edmund Fessenden Cobb was born June 23, 1892, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to William Henry Cobb and his wife, Edwinna (Eddie) Ross. Edmund F. Cobb's grandfather, Edmund Gibson Ross, served as Governor of the Territory of New Mexico (1885-1889) and was the Senator from Kansas who many contend cast the pivotal vote for acquittal in the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson in May, 1868.

The photo archive collection at the Museum of New Mexico, Palace of the Governors, has some photographs of Edmund F. Cobb (some possibly from the Cobb Studio, his parents' photography studio in Albuquerque), including one of him taken in December 1911 in cowboy attire and another in a Civil War uniform.

Edmund Cobb's siblings, Susan Ross Cobb, Daphne M. Cobb, and Wilfred B. Cobb remained in Albuquerque, but several Ross cousins resided in California. May Ross, first cousin of Edmund F. Cobb's mother, was married to Meredith Pinxton Snyder (1859-1937), the first Mayor of Los Angeles to be elected to the office four times, his first term beginning in 1896 and his last term ending in 1921.

Edmund Fessenden Cobb's first wife was Helen M. Hayes, daughter of Charles T. Hayes and Martha B. Marshall. Helen was born June 1893, in Tennessee, and died of tuberculosis about 1932 when her daughter, Eddie, was about 17 years old. Edmund and Helen had married about 1914 and had one daughter, Eddie Marie Cobb, who was born in Illinois in 1915. Edmund and Helen appeared in at least two movies together, A RODEO MIXUP and RIDERS OF THE RANGE. Edmund and Helen were enumerated in Denver, Colorado, on the 1920 census and gave their occupations respectively as, "Actor" and "Actress" in "Motion Pictures", but Edmund's and Helen's daughter, Eddie Marie Cobb, was living with Helen's parents in Third Civil District, North Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tennessee, in 1920. (Helen was enumerated in Third Civil District, Hamilton County, Tennessee, with her parents and siblings on the 1900 census, so the family apparently stayed in that area.)

Edmund and Helen divorced around 1925-1927 when their daughter, Eddie, was about 10 or 12 years old, and they both remarried. Helen M. (Hayes) Cobb married as her second husband, a Mr. Jackson, and Edmund Fessenden Cobb married as his second wife, Vivian Marie Winter, daughter of Marshall Banker Winter and Henrietta Hollenbeck.

Vivian, Edmund F. Cobb's second wife, was born in Wisconsin, January 16, 1894, and died at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital, July 26, 1974. Edmund F. Cobb died there as well, barely three weeks later on August 15, 1974.

(Courtesy of Les Adams) Above is a photo of the title lobby card for THE RAWHIDE TERROR (Security, 1934). Note the "Victor Adamson Presents an Art Mix Production", and a photo of Adamson/Dixon is shown in the upper left. Edmund Cobb (shown center) was kinda the star, even though he's listed second. And George Kesterson/Art Mix was there also.  Bill Patton (moustached, wearing dark shirt, gloves, jacket) is to the left of heroine Frances Morris. Bob Custer is the hero roughing up Ed Cobb in this lobby card from the chapterplay, LAW OF THE WILD (Mascot, 1934). (Courtesy of Les Adams) Above from L-to-R are Tommy Bupp, Lois January, Reb Russell, and on horseback is Edmund Cobb.  From Reb's ARIZONA BAD MAN (Willis Kent, 1935). (Courtesy of Les Adams) Above from L-to-R are Hank Bell, Charles Starrett, Kenneth MacDonald, Iris Meredith and Ed Cobb in SPOILERS OF THE RANGE (Columbia, 1939). Ed Cobb has the drop on Tex Ritter and Eileen O'Hearn in THE DEVIL'S TRAIL (Columbia, 1942). From L-to-R are Roy Barcroft, Edmund Cobb and Allan Lane in a lobby card from OREGON TRAIL SCOUTS (Republic, 1947), another in the Red Ryder series.