Cobb
Cobb is a 1994 feature film produced by Alcor Film and Regency Enterprises, and partially shot in Birmingham. It was directed by Ron Shelton and starred Tommy Lee Jones as colorful Detroit Tigers center fielder Ty Cobb.
The film was based on the biography Cobb: The Life and Times of the Meanest Man in Baseball, by Al Stump, who had previously ghostwritten Cobb's 1961 autobiography My Life In Baseball. Both books have been criticized for fabrications. In the film, Stump is portrayed by Robert Wuhl.
The movie's baseball scenes were filmed at Rickwood Field, which was dressed to stand in for Shibe Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Birmingham-based location casting director Shirley Crumley coordinated the job of filling the stands with period-accurate fans.
Musician Jimmy Buffett appeared in the film as a heckler in the stands who gets punched in the face by Cobb. He entertained the cast, crew and extras with a short concert at Rickwood after the shoot.
Cobb garnered mixed reviews, with many praising Jones for his effective performance of an unlikeable character and some appreciating the innovative structure for a biopic. The film opened in the first week of December and earned only $1,007,600 in limited release.
References
- Powell, Darin (March 30, 1994) "Buffet whisks into Birmingham to get slugged in the face." Birmingham Post-Herald, p. 1
- "Cobb (film)" (September 8, 2023) Wikipedia - accessed September 12, 2023
External links
- Cobb at IMDB.com