Lee Weaver, the familiar actor known for his work on The Bill Cosby Showthe film with Loni Anderson Easy street and the Coen brothers O brother, where are you?died. He was 95 years old.
Weaver died Sept. 22 at his home in Los Angeles, his family said. He “put joy, depth and representation into every role he played and everything he did,” they said.
Weaver played Brian Kincaid, the brother of Bill Cosby’s gym teacher, Chet Kincaid, in the years 1969-71. The Bill Cosby Showand he stole scenes as exhibitionist Buck Naked on the Steven Bochco series Hill Street Blues in 1982-84 and NYPD Blue in 1994.
On the 1986-87 NBC comedy Easy streetWeaver and Jack Elam portrayed a pair of down-on-their-luck roommates who move into a mansion recently inherited by a former Las Vegas showgirl (Anderson). This show, created by WKRP in Cincinnatiby Hugh Wilson, was canceled after one season.
In O brother, where are you? (2000), Weaver had a memorable scene as the blind man who gives three escaped convicts (George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson) a ride on a handcar and mysterious advice about their future.
Weaver, in fact, appeared in several other notable films during his long career, among them Vanishing point (1971), Heaven can wait (1978), The onion field (1979), Bulworth (1998), How Stella found her rhythm again (1998), Donnie Darko (2001) and The 40-year-old Virgin (2005).
The son of a chef, Lee Wellington Weaver was born on April 10, 1930, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was raised by his Aunt Mattie and Uncle Lee until the age of 14, when he left home to attend high school in Tallahassee and then Florida A&M.
At age 22, Weaver enlisted in the U.S. Army and served for four years, then went to New York, where he worked as a linotype engineer for The New York Times and moonlighted as a promoter at the legendary Birdland jazz club. There he booked artists such as Cannonball and Nat Adderley, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Sarah Vaughan, John Coltrane, Herb Ellis, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard and the Heath Brothers.
(Cannonball Adderley, a childhood friend and best man at his wedding, recorded a song written by Yusef Lateef called “The Weaver” in his honor that appeared on the saxophonist’s 1964 album, Japanese soul.)
In one of his first acting gigs, Weaver played various natives in the 1955-1956 syndicated series. Sheena: Queen of the Jungle and a journalist at Al Capone (1959).
In 1967 and 1968, he appeared in episodes of the NBC series starring Cosby. I spy. And when Cosby was a guest host on Tonight’s show At the time, Weaver, on a recurring basis, was billed as a guest but failed to appear on the show because Cosby would run out of time. Weaver was later seen becoming angry in his dressing room.
Years later, Weaver would appear on The Cosby Show and on the created by Cosby A different world.
Weaver kept busy in the 1970s working on television series such as Adam-12, Kojak, Sanford and Sons, Good times, The Jeffersons, Soap And Starsky and Hutch and films including Cleopatra Jones (1973) and Home visits (1978).
He provided the voice of Alpine in the 1985-86 animated series. GI Joe: a true American hero and in two films.
His resume also included the characteristics The lost man (1969), Kiss me goodbye (1982), The buddy system (1984), Wild cats (1986), The two Jakes (1990), The scout (1994), The thirteenth floor (1999) and Max Rose (2013) and guest appearances on 227, It’s always sunny in Philadelphia And The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Most recently, he played Mel Cordray in two episodes of Grace and Frankie.
With his wife, actress Ta-Tanisha (Room 222), he had a daughter, Leis La-Te.
