NBC Television · Public domain

Born Leo Jacoby, Cobb originated the role of Willy Loman in the 1949 Broadway premiere of Death of a Salesman under Elia Kazan, a performance that anchored one of American theatre's defining plays. He carried that intensity to film as Juror #3 in 12 Angry Men and as Johnny Friendly in On the Waterfront, earning two Academy Award nominations, and later starred for four seasons as Judge Henry Garth on the television Western The Virginian.